The Gunpla IS
by BOS-Kai
Summary: Based on Gundam Breaker 3. During the fight against the PG scale model Scramble Gundam, its particles overloaded and warped Dark Silver and his Build Banshee into a world where woman reign as the dominating gender from piloting exo-skeleton suits known as IS. When the world is introduced to the Build Banshee IS, things will get problematic.
1. Chapter 1

Sup guys, before I commence I want you to know that this is a trial chapter. That means if this chapter is well received then I'll write more chapters. However if it isn't then I can simply delete the crossover.

 **Disclaimer** : I do not own Gundam Breaker 3, Gundam Build Fighters or Infinite Stratos. All belong to their respective owners.

 **Chapter I**

 **The Gundam IS**

 **Ayato Shopping Street, Japan**

Walking up the shopping arcade under the sun with pride and sense of accomplishment were two teens of 16 years old each. On the left was a girl by the name of Misa, a friendly and cheerful girl with brunette pigtails and attire that was a mixture of winter and summer clothing with short jean shorts, an orange shirt that has red writing of ' _Over The Rainbow'_ in reference to Gundam Unicorn. She also had a dark-ish green jacket with rolled up sleeves up to her elbows. In way of accessories she had a red watch on her right wrist and two red clips on the left side of her fringe in her hair.

Her Gunpla was named the Azalea Revive, a Gunpla with pink and white colors. The Azalea Revive's design had the Justice Gundam head, Gundam X chest, Tallgeese III arms, Rozen Zulu legs, Shenlong Gundam shield and Stark Jegan backpack with a few Builder Parts attached to it such as a Solar Reactor on the back.

The other teen was named Dart Silver, a Welshman who came across to Japan and moved to the area around Ayato Shopping Street to study abroad. This teen has a swimmer's build as he wore white Nike walking shoes, black pants with an elastic band and a plain black polo shirt with a sown-on white Welsh Feathers on the left chest. He has no accessories and he preferred not to have any. His facial features are sky blue eyes and dark brown hair that was curved to the left side with a little fringe covering his right eye a bit. His Gunpla is the Build Banshee, as a nod to the Gundam Build Fighters series. [Note that Gundam Breaker 3 is like the Gundam Build Fighters anime, but the latter is an anime show in the Gundam Breaker 3 universe.]

The Build Banshee is exactly the same in terms of design with the Unicorn 02, however the color scheme and the backpack are different. The Build Banshee is black in color rather than the usual dark blue and instead of the gold horns and flaps that open up during NT-D mode are now purple, with the eyes purple as well giving the Build Banshee a more malevolent look. The two Phenex Gundam's shields on the backpack are the same color as the rest of the Gundam. Like the Build Strike and Build Burning, the Build Banshee holds Phase Shift Armor parts on the elbows, knees and both sides in-between the neck. [ **AN:** Phase Shift Armor parts are the particle parts that glow blue/orange on the Build Strike or Burning when a unique ability is activated.]

Together Dart and Misa along with Robota, an SD Gundam AI were not only able to win the first World Gunpla Championship, but stopped the Ayato Shopping Street formerly with bad luck getting customers, be wrecked down to turn into a car park built by a rivaling shopping centre. With their championship victory people have flocked to the shopping district and the Ayato Shopping Street was now flourishing with customers. Gunpla fighters from all over Japan would visit the Gunpla Arcade to challenge the champions, and they wouldn't say no.

However, the Gunpla Arcade had a change of atmosphere than usual.

When Misa and Dart walked through the front door of the Gunpla Arcade, the first thing they heard were two kids complaining at something in a loud manner. It it sounded like they had their last straw and enough was enough before throwing the towel.

"This new enemy is too difficult!"

"Why even bother playing when you can't even beat it!"

"Run away with your tails between your legs and come back again when you have money to spend!" An old and croaky female voice was heard after the kid's complaints. The old woman was Illut Granny, the owner of the arcade.

The two kids angrily walked from the top area of the rectangular Gunpla Arcade and were about to march out the door for the final time. When they walked down the few short stairs they saw the two Gunpla World Champions by the door, looking puzzled. The kids brightened their moods as if a hero had come to save the day!

"Misa! Dart! Thank God you're here!"

"You have to avenge our pocket money!"

The two kids pleaded desperately.

"Avenge your pocket money?" Dart asked tilting his head, struck with confusion at the odd request. "What do you mean?"

"There is a new Gundam to fight, but he is impossibly strong!"

"No matter how many tries or strategies we use we can't touch him!"

Misa, being the friendly and caring girl she is, placed her hands on each other their heads with comfort, giving them a smile. "Don't worry, Dart and I will get this new Gundam."

"Hehe, you can try." Illut Granny challenged walking up to the two champions. "But the Gundam will win…when he gives me all your hard earned money!"

Dart placed his right hand on his chin, deep in thought. "It's strange, Misa."

"What is?" Misa turned to Dart removing her hands from the kid's hair.

"Illut Granny wasn't always this scheming or diabolical. Whatever this new Gundam is, it is making Illut go money-mad desperate for players to spend their money on attempt after attempt." Dart dropped his hand from his chin and look determined to his teammate. "Whatever this Gundam is, you and I will have to bring it down."

Misa nodded, determined as well. "Alright."

Misa and Dart walked up the few stairs to at the end of the lower section to the upper section, where to their left were three big spherical pods lined up across the wall. On the sides of each spherical pod was a number labeled 1, 2 and 3. The front of each one was opened like a sliding Gundam hatch, revealing a replica of a mobile suit cockpit inside. There was a chair in the centre of the black walled pod. It was currently black because it was unused, awaiting to be booted up to show a visual from the cockpit POV. Misa and Dart entered pod 1 and 2 respectively, sitting on the seat and fastening their seatbelt for motion safety, with the hatch sliding down on them and locking them in the closed pods.

 **[Please place your Gunpla]** The AI requested. Like the Gundam Build Fighters anime, the Gunpla had to be scanned before it would be used in the system.

Misa and Dart clicked their Gunplas on a pedestal similar to the ones they use in Gundam Build Fighters next to the right armchair. The Gunplas were scanned and after they were, the black camera around Misa and Dark appeared. The visual came up as being in a launch bay the Archangel, Dominion or Minerva from Gundam SEED/Destiny would use.

The Azalea Revive and Build Banshee walked three steps forward before they bent their knees a little. From the POV of Misa and Dart it actually felt like being in a Gundam anime, feeling the footsteps the Gundams made against the floor and bent down.

"Build Banshee…"

"Azalea Revive…"

"Launching!" Dart and Misa said simultaneously as they felt the G-Force being thrown out of the launch bay by the catapult and were flung into deep space, where the only platform in sight was a circular metal platform up ahead. It seemed like it was torn from a space colony in the UC era. Far in the distance in front of the two was a space colony, damaged in some areas that were visible from the platform. The Build Banshee and Azalea Revive landed on the platform ready for anything, as Illut Granny and the two kids watched on with both excitement and worry through a TV screen on the wall in-between the three pods. It viewed in third person so they could watch all the Gundams fight at the same time, rather than looking through each one individually.

Silence befell the two, creating nervousness. "It's quiet," Dart commented.

His words did not last for long when the Gundam that sparked the trouble for the two kids flew down from above and came to a stop, appearing in front of Misa and Dart, levitating in the air and struck a hostile pose. It was not the same scale model as either Dart's or Misa's Gundams. This Gundam was enormous, reaching 5 fives the height of any Gundam. This PG (Perfect Grade) machine that appeared before Misa and Dart was the Scramble Gundam from the OVA of Gundam Build Fighters Try.

"Wha- PG type?!" Misa said stunned with the problem being a large scale model, something that inexperienced Gunpla fighters can take on by themselves, or as a team. The Scramble Gundam charged forward fast and when it got close to Misa and Dart, it swung its massive beam saber vertically at them. Misa and Dart swiped to the left and right respectively and evaded the attack.

"For a massive bastard like this one, it sure is fast." Dart commented as his Build Banshee landed on the ground to the left of the Scramble Gundam. The PG Gundam looked down to his left, setting his sights on the Banshee.

"Dart! Watch out!" Misa loudly warned watching the Scramble Gundam charged towards the Banshee and swung its beam saber, to a later miss when Dart flew up high into space. The Build Banshee aimed down, moving the two Phenex shields from the back to the front, while still stationed on their hoisters.

"Fire!" The Banshee fired two continuous beam blasts from the shields and aimed it at the Scramble Gundam. The attack hit, but it seemed the Scramble Gundam didn't feel it. "What?!"

"Hey! Over here!" Misa fired a Mega Beam Cannon shot from the Tallgeese III arms at the back of the Scramble Gundam to get its attention. The shot hit, but once again. It didn't get a reaction from the Scramble Gundam. The Scramble Gundam slowly jerked its head around and faced Misa. The Scramble Gundam's body turned around next so the Gundam was completely facing the Azalea Revive. The PG raised its arms in the air creating a large beam that looked like a sword in-between the arms and the Scramble Gundam struck it down in hopes to strike Misa down with quick reflexes.

Thankfully Misa got out of the way in time and flew to the left, reuniting with the Build Banshee currently flying over to the Azalea Revive.

"How can we beat him if our range attacks do nothing against his durability?" Wondered Misa with a concerned voice staring at the Scramble Gundam now turning to face the two paired up Gundams. "Those kids were right about this Gundam being tough to fight."

"This might be too soon, but we'll have to count on this ace up my sleeve…" Dart spoke as he took a deep breath. "Awaken… Build Banshee!" Dart shouted as his Gundam instantly transformed into NT-D Mode, showing the purple in the armor folds and glowed red, emitting a powerful aura. "Let's go!" The Build Banshee charged ahead with increased speed and a beam saber held in the right hand. As if in automatic reaction to the NT-D Mode, the Scramble Gundam surrounded itself with a purple aura, increasing its speed and power.

The Scramble Gundam raised its left fist in the air and pummeled it down on the floor directly underneath it to squash the Build Banshee; however the speeding Gundam was too fast and got underneath the Scramble Gundam as the Build Banshee rose itself up from the floor and up to the back piece of the Scramble Gundam. With Vibration Nails activated, the Build Banshee dug its nails deep into the Scramble Gundam's back, and quickly shoved its beam saber into the open cut. Electric sparks erupted from the back as the Scramble Gundam quickly swung back around and tried to hit the Build Banshee. Dart dodged the arm swing and kept dodging to keep the Scramble Gundam busy until Misa figured out what Dart had planned.

He made a weak point in the Scramble Gundam's back, leaving the Scramble Gundam open for a heavy attack.

' _Got it, Dart!_ ' Misa mentally said before she aimed her Mega Beam Cannon and two Large Beam Cannons on her back at the weak spot. At one all three cannons fired at the same time and directly hit the weak spot, causing the Scramble Gundam to become covered with sparks as it fell to one knee, defeated.

"Way to go Misa!" One of the two kids roared with cheer watching the tall Gundam they tried to defeat fall to its knee.

Back at the battle, the Build Banshee rendezvoused with the Azalea Revive. The two Gundam's nodded with victory, complimenting each other on a fight well fought. However, the fight was not over just yet. The Scramble Gundam tried to stand back up slowly, increasing the particles it dispersed per second. The particle radius increased outward.

"What's going on?" Misa asked looking at the struggling Gundam still attempting to get back to its feet. The overloading particles reached the two Gundam pilots, who assumed the particles wouldn't do anything. However the particles did something to the Build Banshee, and strangely enough got past the system and affected Dart too! The overloading particles were combining with the Awakening Mode the Build Banshee was still in.

Suddenly, Dart could see actual real life light blue particles floating in his pod, rising from the ground up like fireflies.

"What's happening?! Why can I see particles in my pod?!" Dart was starting to worry. He tried to eject from his pod, but the hatch wouldn't open, no matter what.

"Dart?"

Before Dart could get another word in, the particles immensely grew in numbers and in a short time, it fully enveloped the entire pod, creating a white blinding light within the interior. Back in the simulation, the Build Banshee started to glow pure white too, removing any detailed features of the Gunpla other than the Gunpla's shape Light blinded every screen of the battle, even in Misa's pod. When the light died down, the Build Banshee was no longer in the simulation, nor was the Scramble Gundam.

In Dart's pod…it was empty. Dart had vanished without a trace.

With the battle over, both pod's hatch opened up and Misa rushed out of hers in within a second and ran over to the pod on her right as fast as she could. "Dart!" Misa cried stopping before the pod. What she saw was nothing. Dart was gone. Not a single thing of him remained. Misa's heart started to pump rapidly as she got really concerned and looked all around the Gunpla Arcade to see if Dart was still here.

No sight of him…

"Dart…" Misa sorrowfully muttered showing an upset face.

* * *

 **Infinite Stratos World, Japan Streets**

"Grr…what in the name of Zeon just happened?" Dart weakly asked himself starting to regain consciousness. The last thing he could remember is being covered with light blue particles in his pod before a blinding light affected his vision. As his eyes were readjusting to their normal vision, Dart could feel something…hard. First he was in a pod, but now he is lying on a piece of hard ground.

Dart lifted himself up as he continued to lie on the hard ground and looked around with returning vision. He saw he was in an alleyway.

"Why am I in an alleyway? Dart brought his left knee towards the front so he it could help him kneel up from a prone position. Nothing on his body was harmed or damaged, so that was some good news. Now with the other leg Dart pulled himself up and stood straight still getting his mind straight.

"Where am I, and where is my Build Banshee?" Dart asked himself possibly thinking of hundreds of questions at the same time. "I probably just fainted and now found myself in an alleyway. Yeah that must it," Dart said to himself thinking of a theory how he founded himself here. A least likely theory anyway…

To see where he currently up, he proceeded to walk normally without any injuries toward the entrance to the alleyway to the street, with passing civilians and cars. Behind them were buildings like a Japanese shopping district would have with cafés, clothe stores and the like. It seemed pretty normal. But the truth was, it wasn't.

When Dart stood in the sunlight of the street that wasn't that too busy, the buildings looked a bit more…

"Futuristic? Did I somehow manage to travel in time?" He pondered looking left and right, completely not looking suspicious at all.

"Hey! Watch where you're walking weakling!" A female voice spat like a thug. Dart looked left to see what was going on and it was a full grown female forcing a man to the front wall of a building a few stores away from where he stood. Dart looked around the spectators and saw if they were going to help at all, but it looked like every single man passing this public bullying was looking away surrenderingly walking past. Some women were smirking at this sight too, like it was good to see this happen.

"I'm sorry! I'll look out next time!" The man held against the wall surrendered immediately in a cowardly tone.

"Pfft, I can't believe you men were supposed to be manly. Now you're just reduced to feeble beings," the woman looked down on the man before she let go and strutted away with overconfidence and arrogance.

 _'_ _What the fuck happened_?' Dart thought with outrage. A man was bullied on the streets by a woman and no one did a thing to intervene. It was sickening! Dart ran towards the cowering man who had slid his back against down the wall and sat down. When Dart approached the sitting man, he crouched too on the man's side. "Are you okay?"

"Y-y-yeah," the business man jittered. "It's nothing new after all…"

"Nothing new? Does that mean street bullying has happened frequently?"

"Haven't you been around for the last six years?" This question made Dart's head tilt. "Women have dominated society for six years now with the IS."

IS? What is this man on about?

"I-I'm sorry. I have to go," the business man rushed to stand back up and sped walked away in the opposite direction of the female. It was obvious to avoid the bully, but Dart wasn't going to let that fear interfere in catching up to the bullying woman and get her explanation for the public threat.

Lucky for Dart the woman wasn't too far, so it took him at least 20 seconds to catch up to her.

"Hey you! What the hell is your problem threatening someone in public like that!?" Dart said loud and clear. The woman in question came to a halt, turned around a few seconds later and looked down on the teen condescendingly.

"Eh?" She gave Dart a dirty look.

"You heard me."

The passing people stopped and gazed to see the confrontation this stupid male has introduced himself to that would get him injured by the end of it. The males were praying for the male's safety, while the women giggled mockingly.

The woman who was being confronted leaned her head forward and turned it sideways so her left ear was at the front. She slowly raised her hand to behind her ear, making her look sarcastic or even more mocking than before. "Would you…repeat that?"

"With pleasure," he replied coldly. "What the hell is your problem-"

 _Smash_

Dart was punched in the middle of the face with a hard metal object, sending him sliding against the ground a few metres. The women around Dart laughed condescendingly, viewing the same scene that makes them so much better than men. A woman with an IS hitting a weak man. Only a tank versus a bug would summarize this situation pretty well.

Dart leaned up and he saw this woman had a metal arm now over her right arm. Placing his hand over his broken nose dripping blood out the nostrils, Dart stood back up, mentally confused and physically enraged. "This….fucking…woman…" Dart said to himself gritting his teeth furiously. This woman continued to smirk at him, and it got Dart pissed off faster.

"You want to be put in your place, little boyo?" She asked insultingly. To her it was like talking to a baby.

"Punch him more!"

"Put him in his place! In the trash!

"How stupid can a man get?"

The woman surrounding the two joined in on the feminist fun, laughing away like a joke.

"I…won't forgive you!" Dart charged towards the woman, covering his nose with his left hand so he could keep his right fist handy. Dart's attempt failed again when the woman with the metal arm fully activated her IS (Infinite Stratos) and kicked Dart on the stomach, shortly falling to the ground with stomach pain too.

"Hahahaha!" The woman laughed loudly placing her right foot in the air above the grounded, humiliated and injured male. The men around him were desperate to help him, but if they did they would receive the same beating as this little teenager. "Time for you to get your hospital bill, boy!" The woman was about to stomp the grounded teen, but her foot was stopped by another piece of strong metal, or rather a claw.

"What?!" The woman exclaimed with shock, widening her eyes with disbelief. The grounded man by her feet activated his IS, black in color with purple trims around the entire IS. The IS had activated NT-D Mode. "This boy has a personal IS?!"

The woman chatted among themselves outrageously, asking themselves how on Earth this male has a personal IS. The males on the other hand gasped with joy, seeing another male with an IS to help bring balance to the Earth.

The new IS's claw grabbed the foot of the woman above it, and slowly stood up staring the feared IS female pilot right in the face. It was like having Death in front of you with purple eyes. When the new IS now stood on its feet while holding the other IS's foot, the new IS squeezed its Vibration Nails and was able to crush the left metal foot, to the horror of the female IS.

Not risking anymore damage to her IS, the female quickly deactivated her IS, releasing the claws's grip and ran away as fast as she could. The women felt their morale drop, as the males cheered. Maybe now the females would see their useless discrimination and stop their violence, male slavery and public beatings to bring the world back to normal, the way it was before a certain someone tore the world in two with the IS.

The new IS dropped its left hand down, deactivated its NT-D Mode and IS and returned back to normal, before Dart faded away into consciousness and collapsed to the ground, succumbing to his injuries and mental pain using NT-D Mode.

"Boy!" One of the men around Dart rushed to his aid and checked his pulse, relieved to know he's still kicking but unconscious. "Get an ambulance!"

* * *

 **So how did you guys think of that first chapter? Any reviews would be really appreciated and welcomed. As I said this is a trial chapter. If you want more I'll make more chapters.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Judging by the reviews the first chapter got, you like this crossover and would like me to continue it, and so I shall.**

 **CasualFictionWriter23 – I know it was strange and going overboard a bit too far to have one female in the streets possess an IS, however using that way to introduce IS to Dart was the first idea that clicked onto my mind so I just wrote it. I'll put a Build Banshee profile before I write this chapter so everyone has a general idea what the Build Banshee looks like both Gundam and IS forms along with its full arsenal.**

 **New Universe Returns – Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the Kamen Rider universe, so you'll have to pass that suggestion to someone else.**

* * *

 **Build Banshee Profile**

 **Name:** Build Banshee (BB for short)

 **Appearance:** The Build Banshee's design is based completely on the Unicorn 02 Gundam before it became the Banshee Norn: so the Head, Chest, Arms and Legs are the ones belonging to the Banshee. In placement of the Unicorn 02 Gundam's backpack there is a Phenex Gundam backpack instead, holding two Banshee/Unicorn shields upside-down. On the knees, elbows and on both sides of the neck on the body are Phase Shift Armor parts that come from the Build Burning Gundam. (The knee, arm and chest parts that glow orange when Sekai Kamiki uses an Ultimate Technique or Build Burst. If you still don't know what I mean look up _Gundam Breaker 3 Phase Shift Armor_ on Google Images and it should be in the second image that says _Barbatos Ignite._ Look at that custom build's legs and those are the parts I am talking about.)

 **Infinite Stratos Appearance:** When the Build Banshee is in its Infinite Stratos form, the base suit is exactly the same as the Gundam form, however it is shrunk down to Infinite Stratos scale and the Gundam's face is gone so the Banshee's head looks like a soldier's helmet with the Banshee's horn. In the normal form and Dart's face is fully exposed, he has black armor reaching from his jawline by his ears that meets at the chin where it connects to the purple rectangular Gundam's chin.

On the backpack though, the two Phenex shields are levitated behind the back instead of on holders and they stay in place like any disconnected weaponry or armor from any IS. With the Armed Armor VN and BS, the Build Banshee IS does not carry them all the time so the Build Banshee IS has the Banshee Norn arms. These hands are replaced with Armed Armor VN or Armed Armor BS when the Build Banshee equips them, as if it was any IS weapon summoned for use.

In NT-D Mode, the Build Banshee IS gets back its Gundam's face when both halves slide to the middle from the side of the face.

 **Color Scheme** : The entire Build Banshee from the head to the legs and to the shields on the back is black. The horn, the Gundam chin and armor fold are dark purple while the eyes are orange. This color scheme brings a more malevolent look. The Phase Shift Armor on his knees, elbows and body are dark purple too.

 **Armaments**

 **Armed Armor DE (x2) –** Two shields located on the back of the Build Banshee that can only be detached when it enters NT-Mode. When they have been detached they can become I-Field Shield Generators, reflecting any beams fired at them. At the very bottom of the DE Shields (not on them, but under it it) they can fire yellow Mega Beam Cannons at the enemy. When they are stationed out of NT-D Mode they can be brought up and aim to the front from behind the head.

 **Armed Armor VN (x1)** – One of the three close combat weapons the Build Banshee possesses. Like the Banshee, it can be used to clobber enemies like a fist or act like a last-resort shield. It is used as a metal ripping claw when NT-Mode is activated.

 **Armed Armor BS (x1)** – The standard long range Beam Smart gun that the banshee uses.

 **Beam Tonfa (x2)** – Since the Build Banshee is no longer bound by the BS and VN, the Build Banshee IS can utilize its Beam Tonfas to flip Beam Sabers from his wrists forward and be used in close combat. Now with the IS Mode, they can be re-summed as Beam Sabers.

 **Beam Magnum w/ MGaAP–** The standard 4-barrelled grenade launcher rifle that fires both metal-heating beam rounds and that fires four armor-piercing grenades that can be set to stick and detonate upon impact to the target.

 **NT-D Mode** – While the Build Banshee is in NT-D mode, like in the Gundam Unicorn anime the NT-D allows Dart to maneuver his IS with his thoughts alone with increased speed and increased reaction time.

* * *

 **Chapter II**

 **Two boys, one Academy full of girls**

 **Hospital**

Dart Silver slowly fought his way out of his unconscious trance, awakening the sound of heart monitors, people talking and air pumps both close and far from him. He opened his eyes to the first sight of a white roof above him. He could also feel lying on a soft bed with a puffy pillow behind his head and something really cold on his nose. The bed was also reclined so Dart was leaning up rather than lying flat down.

Oh, that's right. The last thing he remembered was about to be squashed like a pancake by a girl in a strange mechanized suit lingering over him with smug overconfidence. Before she did that with spectators watching in both horror and nostalgia, she broke his nose with one punch and kicked him with the same foot that was about to crush him.

Judging by the sounds and sense of feel around him, he could clearly deduce that he was in a hospital. Could that woman in the mechanized suit be responsible for sending him to the hospital after she delivered more beatings after he fell unconscious? No. That couldn't have happened otherwise he could feel pain all over. His chest radiated less pain than before and his nose was feeling fine.

Dart gazed his head down to get a better view of his surroundings. There was a white bed table to his right with a pot of flowers on it, and he was surrounded with a white curtain giving him privacy.

He began to sit up, bringing his butt closer to the curve with the pain on his stomach absent. He looked about more as he brought his hands from under the covers to the top. He felt something tight wrapping around his right ring finger, like it was strangling him lightly. He brought his right hand up with the back of his palm facing him and he saw something that wasn't there before.

It was a black ring.

On this black ring was a very small ark purple 'V' that was the size of a baby pea. It was thin and shaped crooked like the horns of the Build Banshee in NT-D Mode. Speaking of Banshee, where on Earth is his Build Banshee?

"…me. Excuse me." A voice rang out to Dart. He stopped staring at the new black ring and lowered his hand, now looking at a make doctor 40 years of age looking at him with a clipboard in his hand. The doctor had entered through the curtain while Dart was focused on his ring.

"Oh, sorry. Yes?" Dart apologized in an honest way.

"My name is Doctor Yamato. How are you feeling?" The Doctor now revealed as Dr. Yamato said in a friendly manner as he introduced and asked concerningly for the conscious lad.

"Better than I was before." Dart simply replied.

"Excellent. Now," the doctor looked down to his clipboard and scanned Dart's condition on some notes, "Your nose was broken but we were able to snap it back in its place. We left the ice pack on your nose for a while to help the recovery process. As for your stomach, there were no signs of internal damage, so all it is just bruises but they'll heal up."

"I can tell. The bruises aren't hurting as much so I'd wager the pain will go in a day or so. So how long have I been out for?"

The doctor brought up his watch on his right wrist to judge the time, "Roughly an hour and a half." He put his hand back down. "You'll also be able to go home today. That reminds me, I shouldn't keep your visitor waiting any longer." The doctor walked back through the curtains and left Dart alone in peace to ponder who would want to visit him. He was in a new world with no friends or anyone knowing his name.

' _Visitor_?'

A moment passed with normal activity around the hospital when the curtains opened again and this time a new person, more specifically a woman dressed formally with a black dress, black pantyhose and black heels came through. Her attire was professional, however Dart couldn't say the same about her expression. Her face looked like one of those scary and serious types. A close resemblance would be Natarle Badgiruel from Gundam SEED. It was Dart's best interests not to annoy her.

"Hello, who are you?" Dart asked first in a respectable manner.

"My name is Orimura Chifuyu, a teacher at the IS Academy, a place that you will be going to right after your discharged. Since no one knows of your name, what is yours?" She used the Japanese custom to announce her last name first and first name last. Dart was familiar using this Japanese custom being in Japan for a few years prior to here, so he'd use it too.

"My name is Silver Dart. Nice to meet you."

"Silver Dart? You speak fluent Japanese for a foreigner." Though that was a compliment, Chifuyu had a blank face.

"I did spend a good few years learning Japanese in my spare time. This is my first time visiting Japan to put my Japanese to the test." Dart rubbed the back of his head with praise in himself. While he had his left hand behind his head, Chifuyu gazed down to where he had his right hand lying on the sheet and saw the black ring, resembling an IS in standby form on his ring finger.

"You have a personal IS?" She asked with a void expression again.

"Uhh, yes I do." Dart replied. He had no idea what an IS was, but the closest guess he could take was the same thing that woman equipped on the streets. He would like to keep being an otherworlder a secret from others, unless unnecessary. Lying for answers was risky, but a risk he had to take.

"Which country are you from, Silver?"

"Wales, ma'am."

"I see. When the hospital has discharged you from here you will be heading to the academy with me. It'll be safer for you there than whatever happened on the streets. When we arrive at the school I'll take care of your paperwork."

"Okay. Thank you," Dart nodded with appreciation.

Dart felt assured and lucky to have a place he could stay, otherwise he would be sleeping on the streets. But he wondered what the IS Academy would be like, if there will be girls arrogant like that female who broke his nose, or would they have more decorum? He would find out sooner than he thinks.

* * *

 **1 Hour Later**

 **Outside IS Academy**

A black sedan with black tinted windows, appearing like a mode of transport for VIPs such as Presidents pulled up near the semi-circle entrance way to the school. The car came to a halt with the left side of the car pointed towards the entrance to the IS Academy main building.

The front left passenger door and driver door opened to reveal two grown men with black suits and black sunglasses, the proper attire for an escort. The two men simultaneously closed their doors and walked to the back seats, opening the two back ones gentlemanly. Chifuyu came out the back left door while Dart came out the back right one, getting out of the car and looked over the car's roof to view the entrance.

It was like any futuristic corporation with stairs and a steel handlebar in the centre splitting left and right. The stairs led to the double sided glass sliding door at the entrance, viewing a corridor inside. On both sides of the stairs were white cubic plant pots, growing green and healthy bushes.

"Whoa," Dart muttered with amazement. This place was organized and beautiful at the same time.

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up; we have to get you prepared before class begins!" Chifuyu spoke in an impatient tone obviously wanting to get his paperwork out of the way and get him into the academy.

"Sorry, ma'am." Dart apologized quickly rushing from behind the car to the other side catching up to Chifuyu who was walking up the stairs to the glass doorway.

A few minutes of walking through the building had past as Chifuyu led Dart through the white walled empty hallways and stopped in front of a room with _Teacher's Lounge_ on it. Chifuyu turned to Dart on her right, still expressing a blank look.

"You wait out here and I'll fill in the necessary paperwork to get you started." She then walked through the white sliding door to write up the paperwork as fast as she could. The door closed behind her and left Dart once again alone in the empty hallway.

Dart turned around and back himself up to the wall to the left of the door and leaned on it, left foot over his right one as he folded his arms. With his arms folded he stared down at the black ring on his right finger. It was one of the only things he could do to kill some time.

"I'm so glad we have the world's only male IS in our class."

"Me too! We can talk to him or even ask him out when we want!"

Two girls exchanged pleasantries walking with each other around the school campus, given it's the first day of the first semester at the IS Academy for them. It was a very lucky day too, to have the world's only male pilot in their class!

"I know! I kno-" when the two girls walked to the end of a T junction walkway and turned their heads to the left, they halted instantly, spotting a male leaning against the wall looking at his hand. And he was outside of the teachers' lounge too.

Not to be spotted by this boy, the two girls walked back as fast as they could and leaned against the end of the left wall and spied around the corner like a couple of stalkers.

"A male? What is one doing outside of the teacher's lounge? Could he be a son to one of the teachers?" One of the girls whispered with wonder.

"Or it could be another male IS pilot!"

"No way! We have to spread the word!" The two girls whispered excitedly overcome with joy.

 _DING-DONG DANG_DONG_

The bell rang loudly. The two girls scattered away to get to class as fast as they could as Dart poked his head up and blinking once before turning his head to the right, feeling someone might have been there. When he found nothing he turned his head back to the front and shrugged his shoulders wiping away his suspicion.

* * *

 **Class 1-1**

"Congratulations on getting accepted into the school," a female that looked like an early university student in dress, age and height said walking from the door of the classroom to the front. She stopped turned to the silent students, "I am the vice-homeroom teacher, Yamada Maya." The vice-teacher introduced herself with a cheerful smile on her face to brighten or excite the class, but not a single smile or comment was made. This non-present mood caused Yamada Maya to flinch, "Ah…ehh?"

She quickly recovered and went into further explanations to at least kill the awkward silence. "Starting today, everyone is a student of the IS Academy. This is a boarding school," an image of the full exterior and island of the IS Academy appeared on the blackboard. 'Even after classes, everyone will spend a lot of time with each other. Please get along with one another and enjoy spending the next three years together." She concluded and still, all she received was silence from the students. She sweat dropped with panic, "Uhh, now let's move on to the self-introductions. Erm…we're going according to numerical order on the attendance list."

When that time came, all the female student's eyes were set on one other student. Male to be exact. Front and centre of the classroom was the only male in the world who could pilot an IS.

Orimura Ichika.

The stressed out teen looked left and right, feeling and seeing all eyes were on him. He gazed his eyes to the right to a female student by the window.

' _Houki...'_ Ichika thought wanting some help, but the girl known as Houki turned her head away from Ichika and looked at the wall in rejection. Ichika turned his attention back to the front with even more panic being rejected by his childhood friend. _'Is this how you act towards your childhood friend, who you haven't seen in the past six year? Does she hate me…?'_

"Orimura, Orimura Ichika." Yamada repeated trying to get the boy's attention.

"Y-yes?" Ichika subconsciously replied getting a few giggles from the girls around him. The giggles made Ichika a bit frustrated on the inside.

"Erm, I'm sorry for speaking too loud. But, having started from _A_ , we've moved on to _O._ Will you introduce yourself? Can you?" Yamada was apologetic all over the place from her gestures to tone of her voice.

"You don't need to apologize so much…" Ichika muttered dismissing her apologies. "Erm," Ichika mustered all his bravery slamming his hands on the table and standing up straight, facing the front rather than to the class. "My name is Orimura Ichika. Nice to meet you all." After his half-assed introduction he felt glares piercing the back of his head from the girls all around him. They were all thinking ' _add more than that'_ and ' _Is that all?'_ thoughts, begging for the male to talk more about himself.

' _Oh no! I can't stay quiet like this or else I will sound like a total_ gloomy guy.' Ichika thought fearingly before breathing out through his mouth and then in through his nose confidently. The girls gasped lightly about to think he was going to add more. "That is all!"

 _Ker-plunk_

All the girls in the room dropped to the floor to hear the end of his half-assed introduction.

"Ehh, huh? That wasn't good enough?"

 _POW_

He asked around the classroom and the next second he got hammered on the head by someone hard like a brick, making him fall to his knees.

"It hurts…" Ichika said painfully as he turned his head back up and saw his sister standing above him. "Sis?!"

 _POW_

"At school, it's _Miss Orimura_." Chifuyu corrected with her blank expression again.

"You're back! Does that mean what you've finished what you have to do?" Yamada asked with a smile on her face for once.

"Yes, that's right Miss Yamada. I'm sorry I made you welcome my class for me." Who knew Chifuyu actually could put a smile on her face? Chifuyu walked to the stand where Yamada was as she moved aside. Ichika quickly sat back in his seat before Chifuyu got really mad at him. "Listen up! I am Miss Orimura your teacher!" Her blank expression was back again. "It's my job to train you to stand on your feet in one year."

Fan-girling shrieks enveloped the entire room. On the outside Dart, now dressed in IS Academy wear had to plug his ears with his fingers because the shrieks were even getting to him outside. It was loud enough to give someone a headache in a short second.

"I fucking hope this classroom won't be like this for the entire year." He muttered grievingly.

"It's Chifuyu, the real Chifuyu!"

"I came all the way from Kitakyuushuu because I admired you!"

"I could die for you!"

Chifuyu was also getting a headache quickly, so as a teacher she had to shut them the hell up. "Zip it!' She yelled and in an instant, silence followed. It was rather impressive to command a group of rowdy girls like that. "We have a new transfer student joining our class from this day forth," Chifuyu turned to the door soon followed by the girls and only boy. "You can come in."

The door opened and the first second when the new transfer student walked into the classroom, the girls in the classroom except two widened their eyes and dropped their jaws. They were now looking at possibly the second male to pilot an IS who was going to join their class. He was cute with his dark brown hair and blue eyes. The male wearing the same IS Academy uniform as Ichika stopped before the class and looked in their direction, feeling somewhat nervous from all the stares.

With a confident tone, "My name is Silver Dart, but you can all call me Dart if you wish. I came to Japan from a small town in Wales, and though I am a first-timer gaijin (a.k.a foreigner in Japanese) to Japan, I hope that you will treat me well." Dart concluded his introduction, bowing for a few seconds accompanied by silence When he rose back up he received one of the most loud and welcoming reaction, unlike the woman in the streets. For one blond female student with black frills on her custom made IS Academy outfit, gave Dart a frown.

"It's another male IS pilot!"

"And he's in our class too!"

"That makes two of the world's only IS male pilots in our class!"

"We have a famous teacher and two male IS pilots on the first day! I don't want this day to end!"

"Alright, shut up!" Chifuyu ordered and impressively the class went silent in a quick second once more. Hopefully there wouldn't be any more screeching moments. Chifuyu pointed to an empty seat that was in the fourth row, fifth column. "There's an empty seat up there."

Dart then took a stroll between the third and fourth columns past three rows of students, with every female eye scanning his every movements as he took his seat by the window in the fourth row by the window.

"I'll have you people memorize the basics of IS within six months. After that, it's hands-on. You should let the basic maneuvers sink into your body within half a month. Got it? If you're okay with it, answer me. Even if you aren't still answer me."

"Yes!" All the girls replied at the same time.

After Chifuyu finished what she was about to say, she stepped down from the stand and Maya Yamada took her place and began the first lesson.

"As everyone already knows, the proper name for IS is Infinite Stratos. It's a multi-form suit developed in Japan." Yama placed two fingers on the blackboard while facing the students and wiped it across to the right to bring up an image of male scientists and engineers working on an astronaut suit with rocket thrusters attached to the back.

"When it was first developed 10 years ago, it was originally designed to be operational in outer space, however development in that field has been halted. Due to the Alaska Treaty, it's also prohibited to be used by the military. Now, it's solely used for competition and as a form of sport. And this IS Academy is the world's only educational institute of training IS pilots, since Japan created the IS and are responsible for supplying the training. Students come here from all over the world and they study in order to become pilots. Youths from various countries will work every day in order to improve their skills. With that, starting today, let's study hard during these next three years."

"Yes!" The girls complied simultaneously with a more comfortable pitched tone, unlike a loud and energetic response to Chifuyu.

"So my life starts anew here, huh?" Dart pondered to himself in a mutter, "Torn away from Gunpla Battles to study and compete in sports…"

* * *

 _DING-DONG DANG-DONG_

The bell to sign the end of first period and begin a short break rung as Yamada and Chifuyu left the room to head off to the teacher's lounge to relax. The female students in the class went to different tables to converse with their friends while keeping an eye on the two boys remaining in their seats. They were purposely making groups so that one of the boys could walk over and join in the conversation.

An unobvious way to talk to them.

While on the outside, a mass of girls from other classes and grades collected and looked through the walls between the hallway and classroom, now turned into windows during breaks and gazed into the room to see if the rumors were true about a boy entering the IS Academy.

"It's that boy, the world's only male IS pilot."

"Wait! There's another male in there!"

"Where?!"

"Right by the window!"

"There's two boys now?!"

"M-maybe we should go try and talk with one of them."

"Maybe I should."

"Wait a minute, you're not leaving us behind, are you?"

Ichika stood up before Dart, making the girl who was about to enter the classroom stop in her tracks. ' _Maybe I should introduce myself to Dart while I have the time. It'll be good to have a male here to talk to amidst all these girls in the academy.'_ As Ichika was about to turn around he was already approached by a girl from the front.

It is his childhood friend, Houki.

"Do you have a minute?" She asked turning her head away, aiming towards the door.

"Uhh, sure Houki." Ichika answered normally with a hint of distress. He really hoped to get to know Dart…but he won't go anywhere soon so he can introduce himself later. Ichika stood up and followed Houki out of the classroom.

Now all that left was Dart, sitting alone in his seat to investigate his black ring more and ponder questions about it. How did it get on his finger, what is it and why does the ornament on it look similar to the horns of the Banshee in NT-D Mode?

The girl from another class who walked into the room to hopefully talk to one of the males, continued her exploration into the class and changed her target from Ichika to Dart. She walked and fidgeted her fingers anxiously on her way to Dart, as her heartbeat was rapidly increasing.

' _I-I can do it! I can do it!'_ The girl with long black hair with a brown headband thought to herself to increase her confidence, being tracked by girls outside and inside of the classroom.

The girls in the hallway watched on, covering their mouths shockingly that the brave girl was going to get a head start. They would go in without a sweat, but their shyness holds them back like a curse.

Female dominance is to blame for the girl's inexperience with talking to the opposite sex. Since females outweigh the boys in modern society, the boy and girls are placed into different schools, usually giving the girls more privileges and such. But now that the IS Academy has been established with two known males to pilot the IS, the girls could have a chance to interact with males, a chance society wouldn't give them.

The girl halted to the side of Dart, keeping at least one step away from the desk and out of his peripheral vision. She had a red blush in her face continuing to fidget with her fingers more and becoming more anxious. This was it. The moment she would converge with a boy!

"Erm, my name is Tomiko Ayane… It's nice to meet you!" She finished her introduction, much calmer now that she mustered the bravery to speak, but that was short-lived when the part with most worry is getting a response from Dart. It was a bet to judge if Dart was kind, or mean.

Dart gazed up from his ring and looked his head up to the girl standing over him, unable to keep up a straight face with a blush in embarrassment. In silent response, he gave her a strange look, as if he realized something.

 _'Eep!'_ The girl was taken aback from his strange stare. Was it something she said to make him look this way?

In all honesty, Dart wasn't offended at all by her greet. He was stunned to see the clear difference in manners between the girls here and the women outside.

Dart extended his left hand across his chest and to the girl in welcome, offering a handshake. "Nice to meet you, Tomiko Ayane. I'm Silver Dart, but you can call me Dart." He replied with a small smile, surprising the girl and gratifying her even more.

Ayane held her hands against her chest bashfully, before she hesitantly brought her hand out, without at least a few shakes of excitement.

 _DING-DONG DANG-DONG_

The bell had to be rung at the wrong time, disturbing the handshake.

"Aww!"

"We were hand-blocked by the bell."

"We should try next time!"

The girls collecting outside the door walked away in disappointment with their heads down. Ayane was frozen, taken with shock to being so close to shake a boy's hand before being interrupted by the bell and had to go back to class. Dart looked at her shocked expression and brought his out forward and took her hand, shaking it in her behalf.

Ayane jumped with fright, "See you next time, Tomiko Ayane."

"Y-yeah…" Ayane slowly released her grip on Dart, feeling extremely happy and walked out of the classroom and went back to hers.

* * *

Back from break everyone had taken their seats and resumed class, however before it would begin there is a certain matter that Chifuyu wants to address first.

"We will now decide on who will be the class representative that will compete in the Inter-Class tournament." Chifuyu informed addressing every class must do on their first day. "The class representative will not only compete in the tournament, but will also attend student council meetings and committee meetings as well. You can consider it like a class leader. You can either pick yourself or someone else. Any candidates?"

"Yes, I recommend Orimura." One female nominated.

"I nominate Dart."

"I pick Orimura."

"If anyone deserves to be class representative it should be Dart."

The girls casted their votes on the two boys in the room, and it seemed no other girl nominated themselves or another girl. It seemed as the girls were bribed to vote for the two boys.

"M-me?" Ichika asked looking at the girls.

"Why are they only voting for Ichika and myself? Are they doing it out of pity?" Dart muttered to himself with a bold proclamation, assuming being voted by the girls was an act of sympathy.

"Are there any votes except for Dart and Orimura?" Chifuyu asked around the class dumbstruck hearing votes for the two men.

"W-wait a second! I won't do that-" Ichika tried to protest against his sister, however a loud and egotistical voice was heard behind Ichika and to the right of Dart.

"I can't acknowledge that!" The girl argued. This girl got the attention of the entire class, being stared at from every direction. It was the blond girl who had an ego of a spoilt princess – Cecilia Alcott. "This type of selection is unacceptable! Having a man as our class representative is disgraceful!"

"Disgraceful?" Dart asked with an increasing hatred to this girl. Not all good women are in this academy after all.

"Do you ask me, Cecilia Alcott, England's Candidate Representative, to bear with that shame for a whole year? In the first place, living in such a country with an underdeveloped level of culture like this is such an unbearable pain to me."

"England has so few things to pride itself with. How many times have you won the World's Worst Cuisine award?" Ichika shot back with an insult which not only angered Cecilia, but Dart too to some degree.

"Bad move, dude." Dart interjected with a slow and annoyed tone taking a stand up from his seat. "I can understand standing up to this sexist and racist…"

"H-h-how dare you call me those!"

"But shooting at my neighboring county's pride is something I can't take lying down. Wales and England might be different countries with their own unique dish, but nothing says we have to take shit talk from a hypocrite. As old traditions of the United Kingdom go, I hereby challenge you both to a duel."

" _Old traditions of the United Kingdom_ you say _?_ Are you going to uphold the traditions of chivalry too and let me beat you senseless?" Cecilia inquired with a smug look.

"The IS nailed the final nail in chivalry's coffin. Now there is no tradition to hold me back."

"Fine by me. It's way better than debating." Ichika added.

"If any of you lose to me on purpose, I will make you become my servants. No, worse, my slaves!" Cecilia laid down the winners conditions for herself.

"How much of a handicap do you want?" Ichika directly asked Cecilia.

"Huh? Oh, are you already asking for a favor?" Cecilia was taken aback by his begging. At least she said that in a softer tone and not in a loud and annoying one.

"No, I wasn't sure of a handicap I should be giving you." Ichika replied back and his response was Cecilia's mouth drop and a symphony of girls laughing their butts off. The laughter was mocking to a T.

"Orimura, are you serious?"

"Sure, men used to be stronger than woman, but that was before the IS was invented."

"People say that if men and women were to have a war, it wouldn't even last three days."

The girls pointed out the obvious to Ichika. The IS was so powerful and lethal it could destroy infantry platoons, tanks, air craft and even a few small battleships with ease. That would be true, but if Dart had his Build Banshee in its normal form then the tables would be turned around.

"Perhaps I should be the one to give you a handicap. I didn't know that Japanese and Welsh men had a sense of humor." Cecilia included Dart too to mock him more on purpose.

"Orimura, it's not too late to change your mind. Take up the handicap." One girl nearby Ichika offered with the outside feeling of concern, but on the inside she was still laughing.

"A man will never go back on his word. I'll pass." Ichika replied keeping his eyes to Dart and Cecilia.

"Then it's settled. The battle will take place next Monday. It will take place at the 3rd Arena. Dart, Alcott and Orimura, make sure you prepare well."

* * *

 **So seeing as that I will be resuming the story, I will make a major change. I really hated that every tournament between IS would involve being cancelled due to an unknown IS, so I will be scrapping that cliche and actually have a tournament having a winner.**

 **Until next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Guest – And I'll be making more mecha crossovers with Gundam Build Fighters based on Gundam Breaker 3. I am already rewriting my Saint Knight's Tale x Gundam Build Fighters story to be around Gundam Breaker 3. I also have Gundam SEED and Muv Luv Alternate Total Eclipse x GB3 in mind in the near future. Though this is not the first GB3 x story I've written. I have wrote a GB3 x IBO (Iron Blooded Orphans) before however I ended up deleting it.**

* * *

 **Chapter III**

 **School Life**

 **Dusk**

 **Class 1-1, After School**

The conclusion to the first day at the IS Academy went somewhat peace with the three duelists fighting for the right to be crowned the class representative separating from the class without a word shot at one another. Cecilia had left the class and returned to her dorm, whilst the two boys remained in the class without knowing what dorm they would be sleeping in.

Ichika and Dart sat alone at their respective tables, refusing to talk to each other. Ichika noticed not too long ago that there was a second male IS pilot in the academy and he had made an enemy out of him before the day reached lunch time. Wanting to set things right, he stood up and walked around, approaching the second male looking out of the window in his own thoughts.

Ichika halted at the front of his table, earning the loathing gaze from the Welsh lad.

"Erm, Dart. I just want to apologize if I offended you in anyway before." Ichika apologized with a genuine and sincere tone. "I was just frustrated when Alcott looked down at us, like a rich snob. I want to start fresh from the beginning and start off on the right track." He held out his hand towards Dart. "My name is Orimura Ichika, but you can call me Ichika." He finished with a strong and friendly smile. He really did want to start fresh and become friends, maybe best friends with Dart. "Nice to meet you."

Dart stood up keeping his eyes on Ichika, before he gave him the same expression. "Heh, I can't believe a girl got under our skin so fast. I'll let this bygone and bygone slide. Likewise, Ichika." Dart extended his hand forward and grasped Ichika's hand firmly. "As I said before. I'm Silver Dart, but Dart is more preferable."

The two now friendly boys stopped shaking hands and pulled their hands away.

"Guessing by we're both standing here in class, I take it we both don't have a place to stay." Dart joked to lighten the mood.

"Seems like it," Ichika giggled. "Hey, while it's near dinner time how about we head to the cafeteria?" He offered. The ears of Dart popped up high, like a dog's reaction to the mention of food.

"Sure! I'm starving…"

"You mean you didn't go to the cafeteria before because you didn't know they had one here?"

"Uhh…pretty much," Dart scratched the back of his head showing some embarrassment.

"Let's go," Ichika gestured Dart to follow him and the two walked out of the classroom and headed to the cafeteria. On their way through the hallways they did encounter some girls; however they kept to the walls and watched the two boys with long looks going past them.

The two boys finally entered the cafeteria which had the interior shape of a hook with circular bait. Before the two boys there was a large empty space that was commonly used to reform the queue into wavy lines to fit more students into them and prevent blockage. At the end before the curve on the right was the front counter where you could order and receive food. Since the IS Academy harbors students from various countries, the chefs were able to make food from different countries for everyone, be it religious matters or to interest students with their own country iconic dish.

After Dart and Ichika looked around the place admiring the structure of the interior, they proceeded to walk towards the front counter, greeted by an older woman with short brunette hair, probably in her mid-40 or 50 wearing the appropriate chef's gear. She was a tad shorter than Ichika and Dart. Her uniform consisted of a white apron what was tied at the back and a head net. Under her apron she wore a pink long sleeved shirt and black pants.

"Hello boys, what can I get for you?" She asked with a friendly customer greet. Her gentle smile pointed out that she was not one of the women who took this woman dominance seriously. In her eyes everyone is treated equal.

"Can I have miso soup please?" Ichika requested kindly.

Dart gazed across the meal board and through the Japanese writing, he translated each one. "Miso soup… Lasagna…. Beef Stroganoff…" he muttered calling out each one individually to see which dish would shove in his face. He continued a little further until he got to a Westernized dish - Steak with pepper sauce.

"I'll have the steak with pepper sauce please," Dart wished staring down from the meal board.

"Sure thing. It'll be ready in 20 minutes," the female head chef walked away from the counter and got the chefs together to make the miso soup and steak. Dart and Ichika stood around the counter for ten minutes until the entrance opened and Maya Yamada came in, huffing and puffing.

"There you two are!" Yamada said in a relieved manner walking up to the boys as she huffed and puffed more.

"Miss Yamada, what are you talking about?" Dart inquired tilting his head puzzled.

"Your living accommodations have been sorted out. Can you come with me please?" She asked politely. Dart and Ichika were in a bind. Go and see where their rooms are now, or wait for their dinner which would be ready soon.

"I'm sorry, Yamada. But you've caught us at a wrong time. Ichika and I are starving and our dinner will be ready shortly." Dart apologized.

The head chef who overheard the conversation came up to the front desk. "Don't worry dears; we'll hold your dinner until you get back." The chef informed with a selfless act.

"Oh, thank you very much." Ichika and Dart were grateful to the head chef, as they walked out of the cafeteria being led by Yamada. They were finally going to have a place to sleep.

* * *

 **Hallway, Outside Room 1025**

The three now stood outside of a door labeled as Room 1025 above the door in a hallway with creamy painted walls. Yamada was on the left side of the door looking at the boys standing on the other side, staring at her.

"Here is your room," Yamada gestured to the door.

"Thank you. I wonder what it's like inside," Dart thanked as he was about to head to the door and was about to place his hand on the handle, keen to knowing how the inside of the room looked like.

"Erm," Yamada said with a hint of bad news in her tone. "Sorry, Dart. But this isn't your room." Dart who was in the middle of opening the door, he stared at Yamada with a confused look.

"Aren't Ichika and I sharing a room together?" He asked.

"Umm, no. You see, we can't just evict a roommate at the last second. There has to be time to allow the evicted person to gather their things and head to their new room. I'm sorry."

"So this is my room?" Ichika assumed correctly.

"Yes, you're sharing with a girl…but only temporarily! When we get things organized the two of you will be in the same room. So please hold on until you two share the same room."

"So if Ichika is in here, where am I?"

"It's not too far from here actually, so if you can follow me again please."

"Uh sure, I just hope I can tolerate my new roommate," Dart looked back to Ichika. "I'll see you back at the cafeteria, yeah?"

"Okay," Ichika nodded with a smile. "We'll meet up near the counter for the other."

Yamada and Dart then walked off so Yamada could show Dart to his room. He was really stressed and worried who he might be picked to stay with. It could either be a loathsome girl or be really nice company. A low possibility it would be Ayane he met today.

Now with Yamada and Dart away, Ichika turned back to the door and knocked on the door twice. He didn't hear a voice so that means he was going to be alone for a while until his roommate came back. Ichika made his way through the door and closed it behind him, walking through the small corridor with a closed door to his right and small kitchen to hi right. Past the small corridor was a room fit for two beds on the left side of the wall and desks on the right, with a window overviewing the IS Academy and the bright lights in the city in the distance.

"This is so cool," he muttered walking through the corridor amazed at the room's interior. A few seconds after he heard a female voice in the closed room behind him, and he got panicked.

"Is anyone there?" The female voice said in a room that seemed to muffle her voice. Like she was in a…bathroom… "Ahh, are you my new roommate? Please take care of me from this year on." The door opened, which really got Ichika panicked. "I'm sorry I look like this. I just got out of the-" the female stopped when she had come out wearing a pink towel over herself and realized who had entered the room.

Ichika slowly turned his head around to confirm that this girl was the girl who he recognized. Yep. It was Houki Shinonono without her bow holding up her ponytails.

"H-Houki?!" Ichika was respectable and turned his back around instantly, removing his eyes from Houki who was not dressed appropriately.

"I-Ichika?! Why are you here?!" She asked surprisingly covering her breasts with her arms that were not covered by the towel, though Ichika had his back to her and had no intention of looking around.

"Well, this also happens to my room as well. S-so that makes us roommates…"

"W-what?!" Houki was stunned to the max. Her childhood friend was going to be her roommate for the entire year.

"B-but don't worry," Ichika kept his back to Houki, "We won't be roommates for much longer! Living arrangements are being changed so that Dart and I are living in the same room. So please…tolerate us being roommates a little longer!"

It seemed Houki had calmed down a little from her sudden shock of Ichika as a roommate. "C-can you go outside for a bit until I have changed?"

"Yeah…" Ichika now had to go outside to allow Houki her privacy to get changed, so when he turned around he closed his eyes with one hand covering his eyes and using the other hand a feel sensor to help guide him out. Since his vision was nothing but black, he had to trust his front right hand to guide him out.

Houki stepped to the side without a word, showing a slightly worried face as she watched Ichika without him noticing her expression. When Ichika thought he had pasted Houki, he tried to hold into the walls and go straight out, however he didn't realize he had swayed to the right a little and got close to Houki.

The first thing Ichika felt on the right side of the wall on his way out was…bouncy… "Bouncy?" Ichika muttered with question, before he realized the only bouncy thing in the room he knew of was…Houki's breasts. "Eek!" Ichika quickly withdrew his hand away from Houki.

"Y-you…pervert!" Houki became enraged with a wildly blushed face. Her hand came across Ichika's left cheek with a hard slap.

 _SLAP_

"Oow!"

Back to Yamada and Dart, the two had approached the room that Dart was going to be sleeping in, as he was very anxious to meet his female roommate. Above the door it read Room 1052.

"And here's your room, Dart." Yamada said with a smile on her face.

Dart turned from the teacher to the door, gulping once and knocking on the door twice. One second after he got a response. Not the best one to be heard from.

"I'm coming," the female voice said.

"Oh please don't tell me it's _her_ ," Dart pleaded in a mutter. The voice belonged to the only sexist in the school. The door opened backwards and it revealed the girl Cecilia Alcott, in a light blue knighting gown.

When Cecilia looked at Dart she placed a smug look on her face, trying to prove that she is above this feeble boy. "It's you." She began with an arrogant voice. "Have you come already to forfeit the Class Representative match and swear fealty to me?"

If it weren't for assaulting laws, Dart would already be punching Cecilia's teeth down her arrogant and spoilt princess throat right now. Scratch that. He would be doing that in class.

"Alcott, Silver will be your temporary roommate until we can organize Orimura's and Silver's living arrangements." Yamada informed the girl who dropped her supreme confidence to an insulted one.

"You mean Cecilia Alcott has to live with this weak boy?!"

"Shut it," Dart spat back. "I hate this arrangement more than you do so suck it up, drop your spoilt princess attitude and live with it, Your _Drama Queen_ Majesty."

"H-h-h-h-h-how dare you speak to a Candidate Representative like that! I refuse to coexist with this uneducated brat!"

"I'm sorry, but you have to live with each other until we have the rooms planned out." Yamada tried to calm both students down who are more than ready to go at each other's throats right now.

"How about we skip the IS duel and fight it out right now? I'm sure a _superior girl_ can fight without having to rely on a machine to do her battles for her," Dart said taking a step towards the girl to show he wasn't going to back down if Cecilia was of the same mind as him.

"Hold on a minute!" Yamada nervously stepped in-between the two students and hope to disarm the potential brawl, placing her hands on Dart and Cecilia's stomachs. "Settle this fight in the duel!" She yelled seriously.

"And so it shall be," Dart spoke backing down and agreeing not to start a fight. Without another word, he walked off back to the cafeteria. He knew for a fact he wasn't going back to that room with that girl in it. He would rather sleep in a pile of crap than with her, that's how bad she is.

* * *

 **Cafeteria, 15 Minutes Later**

Ichika walked back into the cafeteria and he spotted Dart standing alone, looking frustrated with his arms crossed. He deducted that he had fallen out with his new roommate, whoever it is. He approached Dart with his right hand up waving.

"Hey Dart," he re-greeted first coming to halt next to him. "Shall we eat?"

"We should." Dart spoke in a neutral way.

The two picked trays holding their their miso soup and a plate with steak with pepper sauce on it as they walked around the corner, following the hallway and found tables that were empty. On the side there were corner stalls like in any restaurant, with square tables in the middle of the room. Ichika and Dart chose to pick one of the corner stalls close to them on the left and sat down, one on each side.

Before Ichika dug into his meal, he had to get the question out of the way. "I'm roommates with Houki Shinonono, my childhood friend. Who did you get roomed up with?"

Dart stopped cutting his steak covered with pepper sauce and looked up at Ichika in an ill manner.

"I don't have a room." He blankly answered resuming cutting his steak in half with a knife. "I got roomed with little Miss Arrogance, so I decided not return to it. I'm better off sleeping someplace else." He explained expressing his hatred for the girl.

Ichika felt sorry for his new friend, so the best he could do was offer his room to sleep in, although he might have to sleep on the floor.

"How about sleeping in my room until they have us organized? You might have to sleep on the floor though…"

"I appreciate the offer, Ichika. But I think I will sleep here for tonight." Dart cut the steak in half, moving one half to the side of the plate and focusing on the other half, cutting that in half too more and more until small pieces of steak was cut. Dart dug his fork into a small slice of the steak and placed it in his mouth chewing on it and readying for the next piece.

"Are you sure you want to sleep here? I mean, I can understand sleeping away from Alcott, but this place is not a best place to have a night's sleep." Ichika tried to convince Dart.

"I'm sure, Ichika."

Ichika and Dart went to eat their dinners without another conversation and a few minutes after both had finished. Ichika realized it was time for bed so he stood up, picking his tray also. He confirmed if Dart was okay to sleep here rather than in an actual room. Dart confirmed he was okay sleeping here and so Ichika left Dart alone, bidding each other good night.

* * *

 **The Next Day, Class 1-1**

Day two of the IS Academy arrived with the first lesson teaching about the fundamentals of understanding an IS. However before the class could begin, Chifuyu had to address two matters, both of which were regarding both boys.

"Orimura, it's about your IS." Chifuyu announced. "The preparations are going to take some time."

"Eh?"

"There aren't any spare machines, so it seems as though the school is going to prepare a personal machine for you." She told with the girls in the class muttering about how Ichika is being granted a personal IS.

"Personal machine? This soon in the freshman year?"

"Does that mean the government is backing him up?"

"That's awesome! I want to have a personal machine too!"

Judging by the comments from the class, Ichika and Dart thought it must be really special to own a personal IS.

"Is it that amazing to have your own personal machine?" He asked himself, however his question was answered by someone. Appearing in front of his desk was Cecilia.

"I'm glad you hear that." She condescendingly spoke. She pointed her finger at him, "The duel for the title of Class Representative. Although I know who the winner of the match will be," she folded her arms. "It wouldn't be fair for me to use a personal machine while you two boys are using a training machine."

"You own a personal machine too?" Ichika asked.

"Don't you know?! Fine. I'll offer to enlighten a comer like you two." With her holier-than-thou attitude being constantly shoved in Ichika's and Dart's faces, they both wanted to shut her up. Cecilia placed her hand on her chest, creating a bigger ego. "I, Cecilia Alcott the representative candidate of England. In other words, I already own a personal machine. Amongst the six billion people in the world, there are only 467 IS. Only the elite of the elites possess a personal machine."

"467? That's it?" Ichika asked thinking there might have been more IS in the world.

Another girl came up to Ichika, however she was a lot more tolerable. "The technology used to create the core of the IS has never been revealed. Currently, all 467 cores of the IS were manufactured solely by Doctor Shininono Tabane."

 _'This Tabane was the one who split the world in two?'_ Dart thought.

"The core of the IS is a black box. No one other that Dr. Shinonono can create one." The same girl explained. "She also refuses to create any additional cores exceeding the set amount. At the moment, countries, companies and organizations have no choice but to use their assigned cores to conduct research, development and training."

"Normally, the ones with a personal IS are representatives of countries and high-class corporations." Chifuyu took over the explanation of personal IS. "But in your case, since the situation calls for it, a personal machine has been prepared for you in order to collect data. Do you understand?"

"Kind of…"

"Hey, teacher," the same student who explained the background of the black box and the reason why they are so limited raised her hand up. "Is Shinonono related to Dr. Shinonono?"

"Yes, Shinonono is the doctor's younger sister." Chifuyu answered and the class was engulfed with surprising gasps, asking if that really is true, how amazing it is and one question inquired if Shinonono knew the location of her sister, since companies and countries are searching for her.

"She has nothing to do with me." Shinonono backfired with honest rejection, silencing the class. "I'm not her. There isn't anything I can tell you about her." She stared at the window, upset about her past with her.

With that out of the way, it was time to address the elephant in the room. Chifuyu turned to Dart at the back with an unimpressed expression. "Dart, out in the hallway now," she ordered as she walked to the door. Dart silently stood up and walked out of the room to the sound of questioning murmurs. With both doors closed, Chifuyu walked up to Dart.

"What happened last night?!" She asked in an angered tone. "Yamada told me you were about to have a scrap with Alcott in the dorm. Care to explain?" Her face looked scary and threatening, like a mother who had found something despicable what their child had done.

"I was forced to be Alcott's roommate, that's what." Dart argued. "This wouldn't have happened if I was placed into another room that didn't have my enemy for the Class Representative match."

"No one forced you to be Alcott's roommate! In fact you were supposed to be roommates with Chelsea Acott from Class 1-4."

Dart flinched, being taken aback. "If I was supposed to be her roommate, why did Miss Yamada lead me to Alcott's room?"

Chifuyu face palmed herself. She knew Yamada was this type of klutz and she should have led Silver to his room herself instead of relying on her to do it.

"Never mind then, but be warned." Chifuyu uncovered her face showing a threatening stare. "If you harm Alcott before or after the Class Representative match, there will be severe consequences. Am I clear?'

"Yes."

"Good, now get back in class." Chifuyu stoically walked back to the front door while Dart went back through the back door and walked back to his desk.

"The IS, or Infinite Stratos, envelops the pilot's entire body in a barrier composed of energy." Yamada began the lesson with a motion picture of an IS in a blue spikey ball, labeled as _Barrier_ and _Infinite Stratos._ "It has something similar to a will of its own. And through communications with its pilot," the image changed from the structure of an IS standing next to a human being. "The IS and its pilot will share a mutual understanding. Not only that, but the longer the IS is piloted, it will also start to be more knowledgeable of the pilot's characteristics. Don't view the IS as a tool, but a partner. Does anyone have any questions so far?"

"Yes," the female to the right of Ichika raised her hand. "When you say partner, do you mean like a boyfriend or girlfriend?"

Yamada flinched with a slight blush, "That is, how should I put this?" She asked herself , "Since I have no experience with these things, I can't say." She placed her hands on her cheeks wondering off, swinging her body side to side and imagining what things would be like if she had a boyfriend. "I wonder what it's like…" She wondered to the giggled and comments from the girls, saying how cute Yamada is.

The room had the atmosphere of an all-girls school.

* * *

 _DING-DONG DANG-DONG'_

The bell for lunch rang as the two teachers headed out of the door for the one hour break, as the female students converged together again in hopes to catch the eyes of the two boys. Ichika walked up to Dart's chair.

"How about we fetch some lunch together?" He asked energetically, "I'll be offering lunch to my childhood friend too so you two can meet."

"As long as Shininono isn't like Alcott, I'm good," Dart agreed standing up from his chair and following Ichika down three rows of chairs to the front, standing in front of Houki's chair.

"Houki…" Ichika said in a happy tone leaning himself down to meet the grumpy face of Shinonono. "Shininono," Ichika called out using her last name. "Let's grab a bite with Dart."

"I'm fine," she emotionlessly replied keeping her eyes to the window and bringing down the mood.

"Don't say that, come on stand up. Stand up!" Ichika grabbed the wrist that was used to hold Houki's head up.

"Hey! I said I'm not going…" She refused without a loud voice.

"Nonsense," Ichika released Houki's wrist and held her hand, "Let's go eat." Ichika pulled Houki away from her desk, but she wasn't going to complain. The only thing stopping her from refusing more is that she is holding hands with Ichika, the boy who she has a crush with.

The trio made their way to the cafeteria, received their ordered food in the form of a slice of fish, bowl of rice, bowl of soup and some wasabi for Ichika and Houki while Dart tried a burger with beer battered chips. They then found an empty corner stall not too far from where Dart and Ichika sat and had dinner last night.

Houki and Ichika sat on the left side of the table together while Dart sat on the other side opposite the two Japanese classmates.

"Dart," Ichika began gesturing to Houki to his left, "This is Shinonono Houki, my childhood friend."

"It's nice to meet you Shinonono." Dart nodded slightly.

"Yeah…you too Dart." Shinonono greeted back in a blank expression and voice as she dug into her lunch.

"So Dart, what did my sister have to say to you before class?" Ichika asked. He had no idea why she would want to speak with Dart.

"It's because of the living arrangements last night. I said I was roomed up with Alcott and ended up threatening her to fight me; however Miss Yamada got it wrong. I was supposed to actually be roommates with Chelsea Acott from Class 1-4. So I got let off with a warning and that was it."

"I see. That's a relief," Ichika chuckled. Speaking of Alcott… "Hey, Houki," he turned to his childhood friend. "Can you teach me about IS? At this rate, I won't be able to do anything, and I'll lose to Cecilia." He would turn to Dart for help, but he was an enemy in the match and he wouldn't simply teach someone how to control a machine that can defeat him.

"That's because you went along with those senseless provocations and allowed Alcott to aggravate you." Shinonono answered feeling disappointed for Ichika being a dimwit.

"Please, Houki….?" Ichika begged, even clapping his hands together aimed at Houki and bowed slightly. His plead was ignored and Houki went back to her lunch.

"Hey, aren't you those rumored boys?" A new voice called out from the front of the table. Ichika, Houki and Dart turned their attentions to the female with short light brown hair. She had a red tie on her outfit so that means she's a third year student. "I heard you two challenged a representative candidate. But you're both amateurs, right?" She walked closer to the table, sat on it revealing her kegs for both boys to see as she looked seductive, turning from one both to the other numerous times. "It it's about IS, do you want me to teach you?"

"No thank you. Since I will be teaching Ichika." Houki claimed.

"You're a freshman too, right?" The girl tugged her red ribbon twice showing off she is more experienced in IS functions. "I'm a senior. I think I'd be a better tutor."

"I am Shinonono's Tabane's younger sister." Houki fired back, making the girl flinch with jealously. "So there's no need."

"Well…" she might not be able to catch Ichika in her web of getting closer to him, she still has the other boy, Dart, to ask. "How about you?" She asked turning her head to the lad enjoying his burger. "Can I help you with IS?"

Dart swallowed a bit of his burger, "If it's a senior offering assistance, I would really like to take you up on that offer."

 _'Yes!_ ' The girl mentally cheered with joy. "Okay great! Meet me at Arena 2 after school. I'll try to get two IS practice units ready for our practice."

"Just one will do. I have a personal IS." Dart informed backing the girl, Ichika and Houki be taken aback.

"Okay then!" She learned towards Dart and rubbed his chin softly with a sign of affection. "I'll see you in Arena 2 after school." She jumped off the table and took her leave with a joyful smile on her face from the boy who she'll get one-on-one time with.

"Dart! I didn't know you have a personal IS!" Ichika wildly shouted in surprise.

"I was kind of hoping to keep it a surprise from you and Alcott before we fought in the Class Representative match. I guess it's out there now, huh?" He humphed, not sure if he even has a personal IS at all and he's getting himself into a big lie. There's only one way to find out and that's to attend the training with whoever that girl was.

* * *

 **After School, Arena 2**

Dart Silver waited patiently in the middle of Arena 2, a circular field with stands all over the place and VIP booths on two ends of the arena. He was told to wait here after school, but the girl isn't showing up. He should have asked for the time because _after school_ isn't time specific. While Ichika was being trained with Houki in the arts of kendo, something not related to IS, Dart was doing nothing and wasting time.

"Maybe I should just head off and figure out how to pilot an IS by myself" Dart told himself as he was about to head back to the cafeteria so he should have a snack before he is greeted by his actual real roommate.

"Sorry I'm late!" A female voice shouted out from the entrance way to the field behind Dart. He turned around and spotted that it was the same girl who offered to help, except this time she was in a dark blue leotard like a Japanese swimsuit, walking in an IS.

The IS name was Uchigane; a standard practicing IS easy to be used for beginners and is used for melee combat training. It was shaped after an armored samurai, with steel samurai-like levitating shoulders on both sides. The IS was twice the size of a school student.

The girl walked towards the center and met up with Dart. "It was a hassle trying to get a training IS."

"Before we start the training, can we get introductions out of the way?" Dart asked staring up at the girl who blinked, realizing her rude manners at the cafeteria before.

"I'm sorry!" She apologized genuinely. "I'm Katane Mira, third year student."

"I'm Silver Dart, first year student."

"It's nice to meet you," she nodded cheerfully. "Now we have introductions out of the way, how about we start the training with summoning your personal IS?"

"Uhh, this might sound awkward…but how do I summon it?" Dart awkwardly asked.

"Ehh?"

"I was given a personal IS, but I never had the chance to use it so I'm in a bind…"

Mira sighed, "Okay. To summon your IS, you have to think of your IS. Call its name like you are desperate for its help."

Dart had no idea what his IS name called, so he went by the appearance of the black ring with the horns on it and assumed it would be the Build Banshee. It was the best shot he had. He closed his eyes and looked down, blocking off all sounds and only concentrating on the IS name.

 _'Come out…Build Banshee!'_

After he mentally prayed, the black ring on his right ring finger lighted up in answer to his plea, as was enveloped in a white light and the next moment when the light died down, he was higher off the ground, and he felt connected to something, both mentally and physically.

"Whoa! A full black IS!" Mira commented with awe, amazement and excitement taking a look at the IS Dart summoned.

Dart opened his eyes, noticing he as higher from the ground and that he was covered in black armor with dark purple pads, emitting little dark purple stars from his knees, elbows and the parts on his armored body. His face and neck were the only spots left exposed and were not covered in black armor. The IS had two long upside down kite-shaped levitating shields on the back. His helmet was black and had a dark purple horn When Dart looked at his arms, the AA VN and AA VS were gone, as if he exchanged them for Banshee Norn arms with two beam saber ports aimed at the front that could emit a beam saber to act as a Tonfa.

"The…Build Banshee… It's been on me the entire time?" Dart muttered with wonder and amazement, yet at the same time with disappointment. His 1/144 scale Build Banshee was now turned into an IS suit. On the other hand, he was able to pilot it in real life.

After he had summoned the IS, he could mentally see a HUD displaying the weapons available, the 1k shields it possessed and a charge gauge for NT-D Mode.

"Okay, now that you've summoned an IS, shall we get to the basics?" Mira asked prepared to start the private lesson with Dart.

"Whenever you are."

* * *

 **Next Monday, Class Representative Match**

 **Arena 3**

The girls in the class sat in the seats in one section of Arena 3, preparing themselves to witness a triple threat battle between three potential class representatives to lead them to victory in the Inter-Class Tournament. Opinions were split between who would win. There was Ichika, freshly given a personal IS, Cecilia who was the Candidate Representative of England and much experienced, and then Dart who is yet to reveal what he is truly capable of.

One of the contenders for the title of Class Representative had already taken the stage, floating in the air with her personal IS – The Blue Tears. It was a long range machine mainly built for ranged combat and no close combat, like a British Longbowman. She had equipped her Starlight Mk. III medium range and powerful sniper rifle. On her sides were 4 optical bits, sort of funnels like the Strike Freedom has. On her hips was a target seeking missile pod, one on each side.

The second contender, Ichika had launched from one of the four launch bays on a corner of the arena, appearing in his personal IS given to him by the government – the Byakushiki. He flew up closer to the Blue Tears, but kept his distance.

"I'm glad you didn't run away with your tail between your legs," Cecilia mocked. "It seems the other dog cowered away like an unprivileged being he is."

"He'll show up. Don't you worry," Ichika backed up the absent friend.

"Regardless, I will give you a chance to apologize and I might just forgive you."

"You really think you can call that a chance?" Ichika mocked back. At that moment the students in the crowd spoke up in a chant of confusion.

"Look! Dart is using an Uchigane!"

"Is Dart crazy, or just wanting to lose on purpose?"

"There's no way he can win against two personal IS."

Dart flew up into the air and met up with the two personal IS, to the utter shock of Cecilia and Ichika. More of the shock came from Ichika who thought that Dart would be using a personal IS for the battle. Either he wants to keep his personal IS a secret or if he lied about that part.

"What? Using an Uchigane in a personal IS battle? Are you mocking me?!"Cecilia felt offended and belittled by this display of disgrace. But she couldn't care more, knowing her victory is more assured and easy so she can make him her slave. And is she going to make him beg and squeal for mercy.

"Are you going to keep talking or are we going to get this duel started?" Dart placed his hands out and summoned a katana in a sheath held sideways. Dart moved his right hand out and brought out the katana into the open, blade shining in the sunlight.

 _'Time to fall, Cecilia Alcott!'_

* * *

 **I know you're probably ranting why Dart isn't using the Build Banshee IS. You'll figure out in the next chapter why. As you already guessed, I've altered Ichika's personality so he's more human than dense. He will be paired up with Houki, so if Ichika is paired with Houki, who should Dart be paired up with? I will not pair him up with Rin or Laura. The choices are (I'm excluding Charlotte here to give other characters a chance who are rarely paired up in other Infinite Stratos fics):**

 **Dart x Cecilia**

 **Dart x Ayane Tomiko (Girl who introduced herself to Dart on his first day)**

 **Dart x Mira Katane (The third-year student who taught Dart how to pilot an IS)**

 **Dart x Class 1-1 Student (Honne Nohotoke, Kiyoka Aikawa, Unnamed classmate)**


	4. Chapter 4

**The winner of the poll for Dart x ? is Cecilia Alcott by one point.**

 **CasualFanfictionWriter23 – Up to this point I'm only going up to the end of Season 1 in the anime. I won't be including any OCs, unless if there is a story element that could do with an OC or two. For now it will just be Dart. With your review in Chapter 3, I think I'm pacing it well. I'm at the Class Representative match on the fourth chapter when it occurs in the anime.**

 **Guest – I never thought about adding in an alternate realty Misa from the game.**

 **Chapter IV**

 **The Class Representative Battle**

* * *

 _Flashback_

 ** _Arena 2, 4 Days Ago_**

 _"_ _What did you say?!" Mira Katane spoke in a loud and shocked tone, mouth and eyes agape. She heard Dart say one of the most idiotic things anyone has even said. What he said was both flattering to her, and suicidal to him._

 _"_ _I said I want to beat Alcott using the same practice IS you're using." Dart repeated, making this comment much clearer._

 _"_ _W-why? Using a practice IS model in a fight against a personal IS, especially against by a Candidate Representative will make you look like a joke and you'll lose in less than a minute!" Mira exclaimed looking at the boy with his black personal IS active. She tried to convince Dart to use his personal IS instead._

 _Like it was none of his business, Dart stared up into the sky deeply recalling a fictional man._

 _"_ _There is a man that I once admired, Char Aznable. His philosophy told that battles weren't just won by the most impressive or powerful suit, it mattered on how skilled the pilot was, and that is what counted." He stared down from the sky and towards his tutor with a determined gaze, "I would like you to teach me how to pilot the same suit you're using so that I can relive his philosophy and take down that spoilt girl down a few notches with how defeat tastes like."_

 _Mira blinked twice feeling a blush come onto her face being flattered. She just heard the words she can't say no to come out of his mouth, wishing to be trained by her more and having more private lessons._

 _"_ _O-okay!" Mira agreed. "For the price of teaching you how to pilot an Uchigane within the next four days, you have to go on a date with me next Saturday!" She boldly announced._

 _"_ _Deal," Dart replied with without a second thought. All that mattered was pushing Alcott off her high horse and if one date was the price for doing so, it was worth it. "But you'll have to be the lead because I'm new in Japan and don't know any places of interest."_

 _Mira nodded with a small smile on her face, pleased to grab a date with a boy next week. "Fine with me. Just remember to hold your end of the deal!"_

 _Flashback End_

* * *

 **Present, Arena 2**

The female crowd fell silent watching the three IS in the sky, two of which are personal and the other was a training suit. They began to giggle with ridiculousness, laughing directly at Dart for fighting in a training suit when the chances of winning are against him.

In one of the spectator rooms in the launch bay, Yamada and Chifuyu stared puzzled asking themselves why Dart would be using a training suit, when Dart even told Chifuyu he had a personal IS.

"Chifuyu, I wonder what Dart is up to using an Uchigane against two personal IS…" Yamada openly wondered sitting at a desk in front of a long control panel. Chifuyu stood behind Yamada, wondering the same thing. No, if Dart had something up his sleeve or refused to use his personal IS for another reason.

"Either Dart is a liar proclaiming he has a personal IS, or that he doesn't want to show it yet." She assumed. "Or he could have more experience in an Uchigane and wants Alcott or Orimura lower their guards, thinking he is an easy prey."

Back to the field, Dart unsheathed his Uchigane's steel katana and held it to the right side, trading focused eyes with Alcott.

 _'_ _Just like Katane taught you, Dart._ ' The boy thought to himself in order to hype him up. He was feeling anxious due to experiencing his first battle in an IS suit. The controls of an IS were simple enough, resembling the control spheres used in Gundam Build Fighters. Press buttons located in the metal hands of an IS. In theory it was easy but moving the IS in practice was another story.

"By using a practice IS you're practically giving away your freedom, something I shall gladly take away from your beaten and humiliated body, Silver!" Cecilia loudly and annoyingly claimed with a smug look on her face. In her mind the battle was already determined, however she didn't know that Dart wasn't a simple beginner.

 **[Locked-on]**

A prompt appearing on Dart's HUD informed he was being targeted first. So be it, Dart was ready for this blond.

"If I was using my personal IS instead of this one, your IS wouldn't stand a chance." Dart retorted. "Stop the chatter, and let's dance!"

 _BLEEP_

The buzzer went off and signaled the start of the fight. Cecilia aimed her Starlight sniper rifle at Dart and fired a powerful beam. Dart evaded to the right and flew down to the ground and got some space between the two. She was a ranged pilot so staying at far as he could helped him evade the beam shots more effectively.

Dart had a plan and that was to strategically stay back and observe her arsenal as she fought. The rifle was a clear sign she was a sniper, an advantage he had. He continued to fly up against the wall on the ground around the arena, evading her shots.

"Hah! Weak boys will always be weak boys!" Cecilia continued her banter as she fired at one second intervals.

Seeing this opportune time to attack Cecilia while she was distracted, Ichika charged to her with sword in hand. Cecilia noticed Ichika's attempt, stopped firing her sniper rifle and detached her four fins from the sides of her IS and launched two fins at each boy. Ichika pulled back and focused on the funnels.

 _'_ _Funnels? Is this kindergarten?'_ Dart asked himself rhetorically having a lot of experience from combating funnels from the simulators. It was almost child's play for him now.

The two funnels pursing Dart kept firing, but due to Dart's experience with funnels he evaded left and right, dropping speed and accelerating. The mystery why the funnels were firing and Cecilia wasn't got on Dart's mind.

' _Why isn't she firing her rifle? Does it need to recharge, or does it mean she can only focus on one thing at a time? But…with a sniper rifle and four funnels means she is a pure long range pilot.'_ Dart stopped flying around the edge of the floor and flew up to Cecilia with her two funnels in his way.

 _Swoosh Swoosh_

 _Boom Boom_

Dart sliced the two funnels before him twice making them explode as Dart charged towards Cecilia. She was impressed to see Dart deal with her funnels but she had a surprise for him.

"It's admirable to stay alive for this long against me in a training IS, but that ends now!" Cecilia aimed the two missile pods downward and fired two homing missiles at Dart. He widened his eyes, realizing he was going too fast and couldn't evade the missiles in time, so all he could do was brace for the impact and hoped his shields could withstand.

 _BOOM_

Two small explosions hit Dart, covering his entire IS in smoke.

"Dart!" Ichika shouted after he had taken care of the two funnels after him by allowing the two funnels to fire at him directly from both sides, evading at the last second so that the two funnels would hit each other.

"Now time for you!" Cecilia looked towards Ichika and fired four missiles at once towards Ichika, who flew away with haste trying to get away from the missiles. However the four missiles cornered him a few seconds later and hit him all at once.

 _KA BOOM_

"Ichika!" Houki who stood in the same launch bay yelled with worry looking up at a screen.

Out of the smoke that surrounded Dart, he flew up out of it with his katana above his head held by both hands. Cecilia has her back to Dart so when she turned around, she looked terrified.

"Alcott!"

 _Swing_

Dart vertically sliced Cecilia's IS down the middle, sending the British girl down to the ground fast with a hard blow. She fell on the dirt ground and landed herself in a crater, covered by smoke.

"Awesome!"

"Maybe Dart and Ichika have a chance at winning!"

Class 1-1 girls in the crowd stuttered with awe watching Dart's performance in a practice IS against a personal one.

"Ichika!" Dart turned his head to the smoke that enveloped Ichika's IS. The smoke cleared and Ichika's IS had evolved into a new and furnished one, providing a new ability and weapon upgrade. "His IS evolved…"

"The Byakushiki…" Ichika muttered the name of his new IS.

Back on the ground Cecilia recovered from the high fall as she stared up into the sky at the two boys with rage. She glanced over to her energy shields which read 314/500. She grit with pure anger.

 _'_ _I'm supposed to be Cecilia Alcott, England's Representative Candidate! But how can two boys, one in a practice IS and the other who has been fighting in the default setting this entire battle, make a Representative fall short?! This is humiliating to no end!'_

Cecilia was losing her calm very quickly, fogging her mind with the only thought of beating the two boys making her disgraced relentlessly. Her pupils shrunk with outrage. There was no way she would accept defeat! Not from these two!

Dart and Ichika looked down to Cecilia standing on the floor with her sniper rifle aimed up at them, and she was so pissed. She fired at will as each shot was intent to hurt the boys as much as it could, despite having to damage the shields first.

Seeing Alcott was going mad with attempted victory, Dart dived his IS straight down to the ground while Ichika kept evading the shots fired at him in the air. Dart made it close to the ground and then curved to propel himself forward and flew straight to Alcott, now turning her attention to Dart coming at her with swift movements.

' _Silver_!' Cecilia mentally spat with rage. She aimed her bazooka cannons at Dart and fired round after round of missiles at him while shooting sniper beam shots. As each missile came his way, he swerved and barrel rolled to the right and left slicing each missile in half with his katana while evading the beam shots as he could.

No matter not many shots Cecilia fired, they couldn't touch Dart.

Dart was now in front of Alcott bending his left knee down and with one swift slice he cut Cecilia's Starlight cannon by the barrel, making it inoperable. Next, he jumped up and brought his left knee forward, kneeing the chest area mixing in a bit of unarmed combat. With her IS stunned, Dart finished her off with a right punch to her face and with the katana in his left hand, he held it back in a lunging position and lunged his sword forward and hit her chest, launching Cecilia back and landed on the floor. It was after that she snapped back to reality. She was notified with something he is experiencing for the first time.

[Shields depleted. Cease combat activity.]

Alcott had lost all her shields and was out of the battle.

"I…lost?" She muttered to herself softly.

"Alcott has been eliminated." Yamada announced on the mic to the entire arena.

The girls were up in conversation with each other, witnessing the unbelievable. A practice IS had beaten a personal IS!

"No way!"

"A practice IS beat a personal one?!"

"Is Dart on the world level?!"

Dart pulled his katana back after his lunge swapping sword hands. He sighed of relief seeing that Alcott had snapped back to reality. After the controversy died down, Ichika saw this chance to take out Dart with the little shields he had left after being blown in the face with missiles. A practice IS had fewer shields than a personal IS since the practice models were purely for practice, not combat.

Ichika flew down as fast as he could with his new weapon in his hand, the Yukihira Type 2, a sword that was now a beam sword instead of a physical one during default form.

"Dart!" Ichika yelled getting close to the other male. Dart turned around and gazed his head up from his name being called out. He widened his eyes to see Ichika this close, that Dart didn't much time left to defend. However, before the strike was landed…

 _BEEP_

"Ichika has been eliminated. Therefore, Silver Dart is the winner with 71/400 shield energy remaining."

"Huh?" Ichika, Dart and the entire female crowd gasped in confusion.

* * *

 **Launch Bay 2**

After Dart was declared the winner, the two boys had rendezvoused with Houki, Miss Yamada and Miss Orimura at Lunch Bay 2 where Ichika had taken off to head into the arena.

"Miss Orimura, what happened out there?" Dart asked. "Ichika was about to finish off the remainder of my shields and was guaranteed to win, so why did he lose?"

"It's his sword that was the cause of that." Miss Orimura out it bluntly. "When his IS evolved he gained a special ability unique only to the Yukihara Type 2 known as the Barrier Void Attack. It's catch 22 to put it short. It bypasses the IS barrier and attacks the IS's body directly. However it drains the user's energy shields in the process, so it is used as a last resort." She explained.

"So that's why I lost…" Ichika murmured to himself in realization. "So I'll have to use it more thoughtfully from now on."

"When an IS shield has dropped to zero, that IS is out of the battle. Hence why you lost before you could hit Silver," Yamada added with a natural speech. She wasn't scolding at all.

"By the way, Silver," Miss Orimura turned her head away from her younger brother and to the winner of the IS bout. "Congratulations on winning That was an impressive display out there." She congratulated but yet again she was stoic. "However next time use your personal IS. We need to analyze your IS and store it on our system."

"Thank you, ma'am," Silver took the compliment with a slight nod. "I only used a practice IS for that battle to teach Alcott a lesson: Never overestimate an opponent you have not encountered before. She had it coming."

"It's getting late so you three should be heading back to your dorms," Miss Yamada informed the trio of students. The match had taken place after school and it was getting close for students to be heading back to their dorms.

* * *

 **Later That Afternoon, Cecilia's Room**

Cecilia was taking a shower under warm water that was engulfing the shower in mist. She had her head up at the shower head pouring water onto her bare chest in deep thought, and recovering from her loss earlier today. When recalling today's battle she felt something that she hasn't seen in any man since coming to Japan.

It was determination and the will to face against the odds.

She held her hands against her chest dearly, feeling her heart suddenly pick up in speed when she was thinking about Dart and his performance in the practice IS.

"I lost the battle, so why am I feeling this way?" She asked herself hoping to find an answer. "A practice IS beat me, so why aren't I mad at all? Silver Dart…I want to get to know you…"

* * *

 **Same Time, Outside Ichika's Room**

 _Knock Knock_

Two door knocks were head on the door leading to Ichika and Houki's sharing bedroom. It had disturbed their conversation about what happened to day and obviously seeing how Ichika performed out there, Houki agreed to teach Ichika every day after school in piloting IS, but secretly in kendo training.

"I'll get it," Ichika offered sitting up from his bed and walking around it from facing Houki on her bed and walked to the door. He opened the door and he saw Miss Yamada and Dart standing in front of the door, both with pleased smiles on their faces. Dart held a small plastic bag with his civilian clothing in it.

"Guess what, Orimura. They've organized the room arrangements so that means we'll be roommates now." Dart brought the good news to Ichika who was both happy and distraught to hear this news. Of course he was happy to have a male roommate, but trading Houki away was sort of sad.

"I'm sorry for this sudden news, but we've arranged the bedding so that Orimura and Silver can stay in the same room… Miss Yamada apologized in the most empathic tone she could speak in. "You'll have to move out."

"Wait," Houki stood up from her bed and walked to the foot of it to stare Miss Yamada in the eyes from a distance. "Are you saying I have to pack and move out _now_?" She expressed her concerns and slight defiant against this action. She's starting to like having Ichika, her childhood friend in the same as her.

"Y-yes, since looking at the current scene it is wrong to have a male and a girl in the same room as each other…" Miss Yamada fidgeted with her flingers getting flustered thinking about what two adolescent teens of opposite gender would do.

"To be honest…" Houki stared at Ichika with a concerned look, expecting him to have an input on this.

Ichika turned around to face Houki and saw her expression about this sudden, yet expected matter. She looked worried about it, as if she liked to have a teen from the opposite gender with her at night. He walked towards Houki and placed his hand on her head, making her flinch and then blush unexpectedly.

"Don't you worry, Houki. It'll be fine." He guaranteed with a smile, "We might not be roommates anymore, but we're still cherished childhood friends and we still get to see each other during and after school. And besides, I'm sure you want your privacy and comfort back being around the same gender as you." He finished with a genuine caring voice. It made Houki feel more at ease.

"O-okay," she nodded slightly before she started to pack up her things and walked back to Ichika. "I'll…really miss you as a roommate."

"I will too, Houki." Houki flustered with a blush on her face, as she grew a smile.

"Yeah," she then walked passed Ichika with a happy feeling, knowing Ichika feels the same way about her too as she walked out of the door with Dart entering the room. The door closed and Miss Yamada led Houki to her new room.

"If you mind me asking, Ichika. Do you have a crush on Shinonono?" Dart inquired walking further into the room, passing Ichika and claimed Houki's former bed as his as he placed his plastic bag of civilian clothing at the bottom of the bed on the floor.

"Honestly, yes I do." He came out with it sitting at the bottom of his bed. "Several years ago when we were kids, she was picked on by the other kids for being a tomboy, a girl who likes boys things. I stepped in and defended her. From that day we got friendlier to each other and grew a common hobby in kendo. But 7 years ago her family had to move away and now here we are. Seeing each other again at the IS Academy 7 years later."

"It must have been a great feeling seeing her again for those 7 years, huh?"

"Yeah. Hey Dart, why exactly did you pilot a training IS when you had a personal IS?"

"I would have loved to use my personal IS which can be summed up a good advantage against her Blue Tears IS, but I thought it would be ideal to kick her off her high horse and teach her some reality." Dart then sat on the bottom left side of his bed and stared at Ichika, "Only if I could do the same to the full grown women in the streets."

"What do you mean?" Ichika tilted his head to the right staring at the boy who looked serious.

"Before I came to the IS Academy, I was hospitalized because of one woman drunk in her own importance." His reply caused Ichika to blink once and then show a face of worry, like he heard a friend had been in a tragic accident and is now fighting for his/her life. "I saw a man being picked on the streets for doing nothing wrong by this one woman. It was a pitiful sight to see how society had fallen from unity and peace to divided genders and dismay. No one around was there to help or to break it up. The men were to cowardly to do a thing and the woman passed by like they were actually enjoyed the sight. I was so sickened by this sight I caught up to the woman and stood up to her. She was not the responsible adult that she was supposed to be and she punched me in the nose with her IS arm and broke it. Without a second thought I charged again at her and this time she deployed her IS and kicked me in the gut, making a bruise or two. She was about to crush me with her IS's foot…but that's all I could remember before I found myself lying in hospital and met Miss Orimura. I'm just glad 99% of the females in this IS Academy are mature and kind."

This story made Ichika feel sickened too. He knew that females dominated society was horrid, but not to this ruthless degree! He frowned with absolute disgust expressing his new dislike for the females outside of the academy.

"It's terrible," clenched his fists that rested on his knees tightly until his veins were visible. "Women abusing their power using a powerful IS at their leisure… How can they be considered human? No matter what…we must bring equality to balance!"

"Damn straight!" Dart stood up and walked from the left side of his new bed to in front of Ichika sitting at the bottom of his, before holding his right fist out and offered a fist pump. Ichika glandered at the fist looking at him and accepting the fist pump with Dart, reinforcing the male camaraderie between the two alone male IS pilots.

* * *

 **Morning, IS Training Class**

 **Arena 1**

It was the first lesson of the day following homeroom when all the students in Class 1-1 stood at attention with legs together and arms to their sides, standing in rows and columns based on their seating arrangements. Ichika stood at the front in the middle of the five columns, while Dart stood at the far right, fifth from the front and was next to Cecilia Alcott who appeared to be looking less cocky and boastful. That lesson h taught her really got to her head.

Every girl wore dark blue leotards with high dark blue socks, with the exception to Cecilia with a blue leotard and white long socks. Dart and Ichika wore tight dark blue pants that reached to their knees and both wore a short shirt, revealing their abs and arms up to their elbows.

Miss Orimura in a white coaching gear stood next to Miss Yamada, who also wore coaching gear but had more of a teal-ish color to it.

"For today's lesson we are going to practice basic controls of the IS. Orimura, Alcott, Silver, you're up first." Miss Orimura ordered, brining Cecilia, Dart and Ichika away from the main group as they walked to the right side and began to summon there IS away from the others for safety reasons.

Cecilia had a blue earing on her left ear that looked like two upwards arrows, one handing from the other. It glowed white and Cecilia began summoning her Blue Tears and in a moment's time she was now in it after a quick glow.

Next up to summon their IS was Dart, who had all the girl's full attention waiting to see what Dart's personal IS looked like. They were dying to know.

Closing his eyes, Dart's black ring on his right ring finger glowed and one second later his Build Banshee IS was brought out for all to see. The girls gasped with joy, scanning their eyes all over the black full armor IS to the smallest detail, from the feet to the dark purple horn on the helmet.

"Dart's IS looks so awesome!"

"I've never seen a full armor IS before!"

The girls chatted amongst themselves in a gossip-like behavior.

"A full armor IS?" Miss Orimura asked herself blinking once. Ever since the IS was created there have been no reports about a full armor IS anywhere. She was getting suspicious. Where exactly did Dart the full armor IS from? No matter, she can interrogate him later when she has his IS schematics uploaded. She turned her head from Dart in the black armor IS and to Ichika who hasn't deployed his IS yet. "What's wrong Orimura? An experienced IS pilot should be able to deploy her IS within a second." She scolded.

Not wanting to be in trouble by her sister again, Ichika closed his eyes and concentrated placing his left hand on the white bracelet on his right wrist. "Come out," he raised his arms in the air while holding his white bracelet. "Byakushiki!" He then was engulfed in a white silhouette and the next second he was in his new IS. "Hey, it worked." He pat himself on the back glad to summon his new IS by himself at the impatience of his sister.

"Good. Now fly!"

"Right!" Cecilia flew up first blowing dust around where she took off. Dart bent his knees as if he was preparing to launch out of a launch bay and jumped up into the air quickly and so fast he caught up to Cecilia who had a head start.

"Uhh, right," Ichika said to himself with not much confidence. He tried to fly up and catch up to the two IS in the air, however the IS blew him back throwing him all over the place near the ground before it lead him up into the air.

"What's wrong Orimura? The Byakushiki's specs say it is faster than the Blue Tears! Pick up the pace!" Miss Orimura scolded through voice comms to the Byakushiki.

"I'm still figuring out the pyramid dynamic yet…" Ichika muttered to himself.

When all three IS pilots were stopped high in the air waiting for their next order, silence surrounded the three until Cecilia thought she should get it out of the way whilst they were in private above the air. No matter what she needed to swallow her pride, apologize and make Ichika and Dart into friends, not enemies like they are now.

"Umm, Orimura and Silver…" Cecilia jittered hesitantly getting the boy's attention. "I just want to apologize for how I acted on the first day until now. I realize what I've done was wrong and immature of me. So, can you two find it in your hearts to forgive me and my rash attitude, please?" Her voice was genuinely regretful expressing her past mistakes.

Dart and Ichika looked to each other for a moment of thought, turning back to Cecilia at the same time.

"I forgive you, Alcott." Ichika accepted the apology, but now it came down to the male she was starting to have a crush on.

"I'll accept your apology, Alcott. But don't think that I can easily forget about your sexist comments and mocking attitude." Dart also accepted, though a bit more harshly than Ichika did.

"Thank you very much," her attitude brightened up having her status with the two boys either at friend or neutral status. "By the way…you can call me Cecilia." She added with a shy tone.

"Alcott, Silver, Orimura! Perform a power dive and come to a complete stop," Miss Orimura gave the next orders to the trio. Dart and Ichika had no idea what a power dive was, but luckily they had Cecilia with them to demonstrate.

"Well, ladies first," Cecilia dived down to the ground first with accelerating speed. Before she reached the ground she curved a little and flipped herself downside up, using her thrusters in her feet to help decelerate and coming to a complete stop.

"So that's a power dive," Dart mused willing to give it a try. He dived down next and followed Cecilia's example by the book. He dived down and when he curved to flip downside up, he was going too fast and instead of landing 10cm off the ground like Cecilia, he slipped in the air and landed on his back on the ground, making a little ditch. He felt no pain as his Build Banshee took the blow for him.

The girls gasped with panic as Cecilia was the most worried, deactivating her Blue Tears and came rushing over to him as fast as she could. She entered the small ditch sliding down the slope and ran a few steps towards Dart lying on his back in the middle.

"Dart dear, are you okay?" She asked with the upmost concern leaning towards Dart resting her hands on her knees.

"I a-" Dart paused and replayed what Cecilia said to him in his mind. _'Dart Dear, are you okay?... Dart Dear… Dear.'_ He narrowed down the word that made him pause. She just called him dear, as if they're already that close. _"Dart dear?"_ He quoted back to Cecilia to see if this was a mistake or not.

"I'm so glad you said that," she ignored with a smile. "In fact I think you should head to the doctor's office to be thoroughly inspected for injuries. Even better I'll come with you." She was getting way over her head.

"Alcott, I'm fine!" Dart shot back standing back up by himself in his Build Banshee. "You go from apologetic to annoying," he muttered to himself flying out of the ditch and deactivated his IS, falling to the ground with the sound and scene of Ichika quickly falling from the sky and creating a _way_ bigger ditch than Dart did. "I made ditches before it was cool…"

The lesson went on as usual after that, and things were going to get more interesting.

* * *

 **After School, Cafeteria**

"Congratulations on becoming the class rep, Dart!"

"Congratulations!"

"The class representative tournament will be a lot more exciting!"

"So true. We're lucky to be in the same class."

The girls of Class 1-1 had organized a party for Dart, congratulation his victory as the class rep with a big bang. The entire cafeteria was reserved to Class 1-1 and a few other classes invited to attend with party decorations all over the place. Confetti was tossed around, party food was at each table and a round of heartwarming applause.

Ichika, Dart, Houki and Cecilia sat the same corner table with a few other girls sitting around it, surrounded by standing girls massing at the front of the table.

"Thank you all very much," Dart expressed his deep appreciation staring at the girls enjoying themselves as much as he was. "This is a really thoughtful surprise."

"Well, you did earn it Dart." Ichika said. Dart looked to Ichika looking at him, "Of course you did fight in a practice IS and won."

"By luck. If it wasn't for your Barrier Disabling Attack I would have been done for and this party would be for you."

 _Flash_

A white and short flash was seen from both boys peripheral vision as they turned their heads from what seemed to be from a camera, a new female stood there with a camera strapped over her neck. Dart couldn't feel unnerved about this girl. She gave off a vibe that she was the type of person which would stalk someone and wait for an opportune time to get them at their weakest and post it as scandalous news.

"Hi! I'm from the newspaper club. I'm here for a special report with the much talked about Silver Dart. I'm Mayuzumi Kaoruko, a second year. Nice to meet you." She finished introductions pulling out a voice recorder form her pocket, leaning over the table and aiming it at Dart as far as she can to get the best and clear voice. "Please Silver, tell us why you wanted to use a training IS in the class rep battle."

It was Dart's chance to plant Char Aznable's ideology into this world and make a difference. Sort of. He coughed to get the frog out of his throat, making the interviewer wait keenly. "A pilot's skill isn't decided with the fanciest or powerful suit. It all comes down to the pilot itself."

"That was cool! Now what are your thoughts about being class rep?"

"I'm not sure," Dart shrugged his shoulders having no clue what to say.

"Why didn't you say another cool thing? Never mind I'll just make up something." She withdrew her voice recorder back into her pocket, holding her camera up with her left hand. "Now all three of you stand up so I can get you in a shot," she gestured for Ichika, Dart and Cecilia to stand up. The three couldn't help it so they all complied standing up at the same time. Cecilia was on the right, Dart in the middle and Ichika on the left with Houki seated next to him. Ichika and Dart wrapped their arms around each other's arms as a sign of good friendship, leaving Cecilia alone.

She wanted body contact too so she asserted her arms wrapped around Dart's right arm securely, to his discomfort, and got as close to him as she could for the photo.

Mayuzumi held her camera up to her eyes ready to take the photo shot, "3, 2, 1…"

 _Flash_

She pressed the camera's button down and took the picture, but it was unexpectedly photo-bombed by the other students around the trio invading into the photo shot smiling at the camera. Cecilia was annoyed to have _her_ picture with Dart and Ichika ruined by the others.

The surprises weren't going to stop when the arrival of China's Representative Candidate drops by the IS Academy.

* * *

 **I know what most of your are probably thinking. The IS battle was awful and rushed. Honestly it was the best I could write. I'm not good at fighting scenes .**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter V**

 **The Second Childhood Friend**

 **Room 1025**

 _Click_

The door to the shared room of Ichika and Dart was closed after the boys walked through it and into the small hallway, then further into the room after their party with Class 1-1 and a few other classes in celebration for Dart's victory as the new Class 1-1 representative. The party had taken its toll on the two boys, yawning and stretching their arms and bodies around. Sitting in one spot for hours and talking their mouths off was something they wouldn't want to do again.

"Oh man I'm bushed," Dart said with sleepiness falling down flat onto his bed finally feeling some cushioning comfort from the cafeteria chair. "I think my eyes are about to die out on me."

"Same for me. But you have to hand it to those girls. They know how to throw a party." Ichika replied heading into the bathroom and turning on the light, placing himself in front of the mirror and pick up a toothbrush, painted it with toothpaste and scrubbed his teeth cleanly and thoroughly.

"I guess you're right…" Dart rolled off his bed onto his two feet and proceeded to walk to the windows while he took off his shirt. He threw his shirt on the desk and closed the blinds down and shut them. He was about to take his pants off as well but when he placed his hands on his belt, he heard to knocks on the door.

 _Knock Knock_

"I'll get it," Dart spoke, walking to the front door not realizing he was half asleep and was shirtless. He walked past the bathroom and from the corner of his eye he saw Dart walking shirtless.

Ichika widened his eyes and was about to inform Dart he was shirtless, but it was too late.

 _Click Whoosh_

Dart opened the door to the presence of Cecilia Alcott still in her IS Academy uniform, who wandered her eyes down Dart's bare chest and instantly blushed, looking away.

"D-Dart…" Cecilia said with embarrassment. Dart looked questioned before he tracked his eyes where Cecilia laid them. It took him two seconds to figure out what caused her to look away. His conscious was back fully awake as Dart came to realize he was present in front of a lady, without a shirt.

 _'_ _Oh crap!'_ Dart recognized his inappropriate dress taking one step back and quickly closing the door until his body was covered and he poke his head around the door. "So what do you need, Alcott?" He asked in a casual manner still refusing to call her by her first name like she allowed today during IS practice.

Turning her head back around and her blush removed from her cheeks, she got straight to business.

"I told you can call me Cecilia," she reminded him. She didn't remember she wasn't out of the neutral forest with Dart, only with Ichika. "I've come to ask if you would like to join me for lunch tomorrow, just the two of us." She requested the date in a confident manner, despite she was hesitant and shy to ask on the inside.

 _'_ _Is she asking me out on a date?'_ Dart asked himself mentally confused. _'She was a bitch a couple of days ago, but now she wants to date me? Is this girl mentally ill or something?'_

Cecilia could see the indecisive in his eyes, so she had an idea to tip the scales in her favor. _The fastest way to a man's heart is through the stomach_ as the idolism says.

"I'll make sandwiches," Cecilia tempted. Her offer knocked the indecisive from Dart's eyes and mind. If Alcott was willing to go this close to have just lunch with him, she must be really serious about it.

It was an offer he just couldn't say no to.

"Uhh, sure," Dart replied casually.

"Great!" She exclaimed with joy, "I'll see you tomorrow." She waved goodbye before she walked off the right with a pleasant smile on her face having caught Dart on the fishing line. All she needed to do was reel him in nice and slowly before she can actually starting Dart for real.

With her exit Dart closed the door behind him and heading back to what he was about to do. As he walked past the bathroom he heard Ichika spit out the toothpaste from his mouth into the sink, following a tap running. The tap stopped with a squeak and a light being turned off, flickering the bathroom light off.

"So you're having lunch with Cecilia tomorrow," Ichika commented on what he overheard from the bathroom. He walked to his bed and began to undress and change into his blue shirt top and black boxers.

"It seems that way, doesn't it?" Dart included a bit of sarcasm in his voice, though not detectable by Ichika. Dart removed his pants so his dark blue boxer shorts was the only thing that covered him. He walked up the right side of his bed and rolled himself under the sheets, placing his head on his comfy white pillow.

Ichika walked to the hallway and turned off the room's lights only leaving his bedside lamp on to illuminate the room. He walked back to his bed and went into it. To think of a conversation to help them get some sleep, Ichika wanted to inquire about Dart's personal IS.

"Hey, Dart."

"Yeah?"

"About your IS, it's pretty cool. What do you call it?"

"The Build Banshee, and if you're looking for spoilers what it can do you'll have to wait for the others during the Class Rep bout."

"Aww come on man. Just one little thing," Ichika begged in fun.

"No."

"Please? I won't tell anyone."

"You ask again and I'll personally introduce you to it." Dart threatened, but in a joking manner making Ichika back away from the subject.

"Okay, okay." Ichika stopped his inquire into his IS. "Good night, Dart."

"Night, Ichika."

* * *

 **Same Night, Arena 2 Spectator Room**

Miss Orimura and Miss Yamada were going over the schematics of the Build Banshee that Dart gave to them about his IS late at night. Strangely enough, it wasn't any ordinary IS made by Tabane Shininono. It was like the Build Banshee was custom made with a small reactor instead of a black box like any IS had to operate. This Build Banshee had a reactor named the _Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor_.

On the screen in front of the two teachers was the 2D diagram of the IS suit in the right side. To the left side of the IS diagram it gave the names of the IS weaponry including their details, and separated from them was an ability known as the _NT-D Mode_ just underneath the list of weapons.

This was mind boggling for the two teachers. It just didn't make any sense. They were lost in a circle of thoughts thinking of the IS's weapons and reactor as its black box.

"I've never seen an IS like this before…" Maya said in awe and confusion at the same time. "Full armor…fusion reactor…NT-D Mode… Just what are they?"

"I don't know, Miss Yamada. But this fusion reactor…it wasn't created by Tabane." Chifuyu replied with an unnerved tone. Miss Yamada turned her head up to Chifuyu with a concerned look. "We might be dealing with an IS that has been created in secrecy."

"What makes you think of that, Miss Orimura?"

"Think of it. How many countries are searching for Tabane? Countless. Maybe the UK were desperate to find Tabane that they gave up, studied the IS core in and out to create a similar source. And besides, Tabane isn't the type of person anymore to experiment with new prototypes for one particular person." Tabane was always secluded from the others and would only contact people she knew such as Chifuyu and her little sister."

"Before we question Dart and this Build Banshee I'll get in contact with Tabane tomorrow and see if she is behind it. If she doesn't then the origin of Dart's IS will be clearer."

* * *

 **The Next Morning, Class 1-1**

Dart, Ichika, Cecilia along with six other girls in the same class surrounded around where Ichika sat in his seat in gossip about a rumor, that Class 1-2 has a new student.

"The class league match is coming up soon," one girl reminded.

"Oh, that's right! Have you heard that the representative for Class 1-2 has been changed?"

"Yeah, now it's that transfer student."

"A new transfer student? At this time of year?" Ichika asked surprisingly.

"Yeah. Supposedly she's from China."

"Hmph, I wonder if she transferred to the IS Academy to learn my techniques," Alcott was back to her annoying and boasting attitude.

"I'm curious about this girl." Dart said with interest, "I wonder if she'll make a strong opponent for my Build Banshee."

"Well the only classes with personal IS are Class 1-1 and 1-4 so we'll be fine," the dark blue haired girl by the name of Shizune Takasuki said in a reassuring manner looking at Dart standing at the front of Ichika's desk.

"That information is outdated!" A female voice said from the front door. Every person in the room looked their heads with a small gasp to the female by the door and it was a small girl with brown pigtails tied in yellow bows. She was short in stature with green emerald eyes. Her IS outfit was customized to a degree with the shoulder pieces of her sleeves cut off so it looked like she had really long sleeves reaching near her shoulders with a bit of a point.

"The representative for Class 1-2 has a personal IS too." She informed with her hand son her hips. "So it's not going to be as easy to win anymore."

"Who invited the preschooler?' Dart questioned in a mutter. No one knew the answer to his question except for the other IS male pilot.

Ichika blinked once as he stood up noticing his second childhood friend, "No way… Is that really you Rin?"

"That's right! I'm Huang Lingyin, China's Representative Candidate and I've come to declare war!" She announced aiming her right finger at Ichika, trying to act cool.

The classroom was in a mutter, talking to each other in wonder about this new opponent coming from China, being their Representative Candidate and how Class 1-2 is going to deal with this new personal IS pilot.

Ichika chuckled how Rin tried to act cool, "Good one. Coming in here and acting like a showoff."

"Huh?" Rin stuttered starting to become annoyed how Ichika would treat the return of his childhood friend! "What?! How could you say something like that about me?!"

 _Bonk!_

Rin was hit on the head by a hard pummel from above her. She held her head with both her arms expressing the pain she was in. "It hurt!" She turned around furiously to whoever attacked her, "What do you do tha eh?-" She stopped, looking up at the angry Chifuyu towering over her.

"Consider that your homeroom bell being run. Now scram you're in the way." Chifuyu told Rin off as she made her way past the frightened Chinese girl, turning to her side and apologizing with a soft tone in a formal manner.

She had to wrap up the business she had in Class 1-1 as soon as possible, lest she needed to encourage the wrath of Chifuyu. She turned her attention back to Ichika.

"I'll be back later, so don't you dare go anywhere! Humph," Rin took her leave in a tsundere manner.

"Get in your seats. Class is starting." Chifuyu ordered and instantly every girl and Dart rushed back to their respective seats. When everyone was seated, Chifuyu gazed her eyes to Dart in his seat. She was on edge about his IS following her conversation with Tabane earlier this morning.

* * *

 _Flashback_

 ** _Last Night, Chifuyu Room_**

 _Ring ring… ring ring…_

 _"_ _CHIFUYU! Long time no see!" Tabane greeted in a hyperactive tone speaking to Chifuyu._

 _"_ _Can the tone, I need to ask you something." Chifuyu replied in a serious and scolding manner, clearly showing she has no time for fun talk and games. She just wants to get her business with Tabane over and done with so she can hang up and stop getting a headache from her constant cheerful voice._

 _"_ _Anything for Chifuyu!"_

 _"_ _Have you created a personal IS built with a reactor called a Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor that replaces the black box_?"

 _"_ _Uhh…nope!" She replied with an energetic voice._

 _"_ _There is a male IS pilot at the IS Academy apart from my little brother, Ichika. His name is Dart Silver and he has a personal IS named the Build Banshee, and it has weapons different from the common personal IS and a system called NT-D Mode. Do you know anything of those names?"_

 _"_ _No…" Tabane expressed a more serious manner. This Build Banshee was not built by her hands. "A country must have found an alternate to IS…" Having a country manufacture an IS with an alternate source of power is a very bad sign. One alternate IS comes more, and more until the country has manufactured a mass IS army. What comes next won't be pretty._

 _War._

 _"_ _Then I'll keep an eye on Dart for the time being and try to solve this case until we fully know that where Dart got his IS from." Chifuyu hung up the phone and ended the call with Tabane._

 _'_ _Dart, I will find where you got your IS, and I swear if it's illegal or dangerous, I will step in.'_

 _Flashback End_

* * *

 **Lunch Break, Above School**

On top of the school building was a beautiful vantage point that had the vast sea, the school grounds and the city that was isolated from the IS Academy in sight. It was a tremendous spot for someone to go clear their mind…or do something romantic at night surrounded by the lights the school and the city illuminated.

The rooftop wasn't much in appearance except for the guard rails around the top with a square patch of green short grass in the middle.

Dart sat on the grass with his legs crossed with Cecilia in front of him, staring happily at him who had brought up a small picnic basket with her. In it was fresh made sandwiches with Western ingredients: ham, cheese, butter and lettuce. Some others had other salads and a few only had egg on them. She wanted a variation of sandwiches to ensure her made lunch appealed to Dart's tastes.

"I prepared this basket of sandwiches for you," she explained holding the open basket of sandwiches to Dart so he could pick which one he prefers. "I hope you like them."

"Thank you," Dart leaned forward so he could have an eye view of what was inside the basket. There was a cheese and ham one that interested him. He reached into the basket and took out a triangle shaped sandwich out of the basket like a crane at an amusement park. Once he got what sandwich he wanted, he leaned back and sat back on his ass, holding the sandwich in his right hand.

Before he wanted to eat, he had to address the elephant in the room, or on the roof. He was dying to know why on earth Cecilia changed her attitude from being a sexist and condescending to Dart and Ichika, but after the class rep match she turned over a new leaf and started to willingly be closer to Dart.

"Alcott-"

"Please call me Cecilia," she interfered with correction.

"On the first day of school you were, how should I say this? Unpleasant to be around and talk to. After the class representative match you changed your ways, apologized to Ichika and myself and now you want to be closer to me? Why's that?''

Cecilia lowered her head slightly, showing a remorseful expression. It was a tragic memory to remember.

"My loathe for men started when I was a child, when I viewed my father as the opposite of a role model for a perfect man, a man that I would someday wish to marry. Instead of being chivalrous, strong, protective and caring he was a bastard, gloating in his spoilt upbringing and causing nothing but trouble for my mother. He had no purpose in or out of the house."

"Oh. So that's why you transferred to the IS Academy? To get away from your father?" Dart questioned with a sympathetic voice to the silent shake of Cecilia's head a few times.

"My parents…they died during a train accident a few years ago… Because I inherited their fortune, many families tried to take advantage and take it. I was promised if I went to the IS Academy, the British Government would protect my family's home and my inheritance."

"I…I'm sorry for your loss." Dart began to put together the puzzle in his head about Cecilia Alcott. ' _She was mean on the first day because she loathed men, due to her father being a bastard and traumatized her as a child. Because of him she wasn't able to have her dream granted of marrying a man of her dreams. So when I won the fight, she saw a bit of the perfect man she's been searching for in me? That's why she's been attempting to get close to me?'_

Dart was feeling really empathic for Cecilia. All she wanted was to be with the man of her dreams and yet her father took that opportunity away from her by corrupting her heart to see the bad side of men. He walked on his knees to the upset Cecilia in front of him, placed his sandwich on top the small picnic basket on Cecilia's side.

Cecilia raised her head back up seeing a pair of legs on front of her, and she flinched seeing Dart this close to her.

"D-Dart?" She jittered and the next moment, Dart wrapped his arms around Cecilia in comfort giving her pats on her back. She felt a warm blush on her cheeks and something else, something she hasn't felt since she was a child that only her mother would provide – warmth and protection.

"Maybe I should give you a fighting chance, Cecilia." Dart said in a calm and fatherly manner. Cecilia's dream of finding the perfect husband for her might come earlier than expected.

* * *

 **Room 1025, Night**

The day had finally come to an end when Dart and Ichika were back at their room. During lunch for Ichika he had talked in private with is second childhood friend, the same girl who charged into class 1-1 and issued a war. Of course when talking got a bit too long Houki interfered and had a bit of an argument with Rin, with back and forth debates in which one knew Ichika for how long, what they would do as kids and such. It was the common squabble between two people trying to out-best the other.

While Dart on the other had a pleasant lunch, enjoying Cecilia's made sandwiches she cooked for him and talked the rest of lunch by, getting to know each other. She offered to spend more time with Dart by having IS training sessions after school starting tomorrow, and he agreed. He could really use the extra training.

But not everything was okay inside the room.

Rin was inside the room with a pink sports bag with all her gear in it on the floor, as she was in Dart's face to the boy's discomfort.

"Can you change rooms with me, please?" Rin asked politely wanting to kick Dart out of the room so Rin could be in the same room as her childhood friend. But getting what she wanted was not going to be easy.

"I just officially moved into this room a few days ago, so there is no way I am going to swap rooms without being sorted out with the dorm manager on a whim." He defended against the little termite, becoming slightly agitated.

"But if you move out you can be in the same room as girl. Don't you want that?" She tried tempting Dart, to no effect.

Dart folded his arms making it clear he won't move a muscle, "My answer is still no."

"Fine then! How about we make a deal to settle this living arrangement. Next week is the class representative tournament, so when I face Ichika and I somehow lose, then you can keep this room. But if I win then you'll kick yourself out and allow me in!" She was getting more defensive.

"Uhh, Rin." Ichika interjected with bad news raising his right finger up. "I'm not the class rep. Dart is," he pointed his finger to Dart towering over the girl.

"So that means this'll be between you and me." Dart smugly looked staring down at the petite girl.

"Heh," she grinned liking this new challenger and the meaning when she beat Dart instead of Ichika. "Fine with me. I'll enjoy kicking you to the dirt and then out of this room." Her overconfidence rivaled Cecilia's.

"You better be careful of what you wish for, lass." Dart educated turning his smile upside down in a frown, "No one in this IS Academy has no idea what my personal IS is capable of. You better be ready for plenty of surprises."

"He's telling the truth, Rin. He beat England's Representative Candidate with a practice model, so he hasn't been in a fight with his personal IS yet." Ichika informed Rin shocked to hear this.

"He beat a candidate with a practice IS? What a load of crap!" She refused to acknowledge that fact yelling in Dart's face instead of Ichika's. "I'll see you in the arena next week!" She huffed before turning around, snatching her bag of possessions from the floor and closing the door angrily behind her.

"I'm starting to think that you pick questionable friends, Ichika." Dart said turning his head around to the boy shrugging his shoulders.

"She wasn't that bad when I first met her, so I don't know what happened to her during our time apart."

"Just some advice: Think before you befriend someone," Dart chucked as he walked to Ichika and gave him a quick pat on his right shoulder. "But don't worry, when it comes to the class representative battle I'll be sure to win against her so you don't need to get upset about me leaving." He teased implying Ichika wouldn't be able to live without him around.

"Hey!"

* * *

 **Saturday, Outside of IS Academy**

Standing outside of the entrance to one of the few IS Academy buildings waited Dart leaning against the wall in patience, not able to get rid of the butterflies in his stomach. He wore his casual civilian clothing combining of his white Nike walking shoes, black pants with the elastic band and a plain black polo shirt with a sown on white Welsh feathers on the left chest near his heart.

He had to keep his promise to Mira Katane for helping him train after school to prepare for the Class representative match against Ichika and Cecilia. The price of this training was a date with her today, where she was going to take the lead for the day and act as his tourist around the city.

Outside with him, although keeping their distance from him and staring in wonder were girls who also had worn casual clothing, some even wearing there is Academy outfit. They stared at Dart waiting alone by the glass doorway with questions and tried to theorize what he wanted to do.

"Hey look, it's Silver Dart."

"I wonder why he's out here doing nothing."

"Is he waiting for Orimura?"

"…Or he could be waiting for his date!"

"Really?! But who?"

Dart overheard the girls talking about him and couldn't help but give a long mental sigh. It was only one date with Mira Katane and nothing else.

A few minutes passed when the door next to Dart opened and out came Mira sporting in white closed sandals with a strap going across the top. She has a light green skirt and light green shirt with a long sleeved white unbuttoned jacket, over her top. Her hair was nicely combed and she radiated an intoxicating smell of perfume, Dart could instantly pick up the smell as she walked through the door. On her left arm was a small yellow bag with a purple flower on it.

"You look lovely," Dart complimented getting himself off the wall and walking to the left side of Mira as he held his right arm towards her, offering his arm.

"Thank you," Mira took the compliment with a glad smile hooking her left arm around and through Dart's held arm. "You do too, _Dart~"_ She purred.

"Kyaah!"

"Silver is dating Katane?!"

"But she's a third year…and he's a first year!"

Dart ignored the speculations of this date from the girls chatting about the two, starting to walk away from the IS Academy with Mira hooked into him.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, Katane. This date is just for today as part of the deal," Dart tried to let her down as politely as he could.

"It's okay," Mira understood and felt the same way too. It was best to go on a date with a friend of the opposite gender, not because of an agreement. "But who knows, you might enjoy the date that you'll want another, and then another until I have you all for myself."

"Heh, then you'll have to try your best to show me fun and the best parts of town and you might get your wish." Dart replied with a tease as the two set off into town and began their date.

 **20 Minutes Later**

The pair walked into town after a 15 minute walk across the long bridge connecting the city to the IS Academy. Mira had led Dart to a nice ice cream shop a bit into town where they could go for the first part of their date. She bought two ice cream sundaes in a tall glass with a red and white stripped straw sticking out of the vanilla ice cream on the top, surrounded by whipped cream around the glass and chocolate sauce on the vanilla. They also brought out two plastic spoons in packaging to help scoop away the ice cream.

When they received their order they went back outside and sat at one of the tables outside of the shop shaded by an open umbrella. They both sat one at each end of the wooden tables.

"Thank you Katane," Dart thanked with a little nod before he moved his mouth over to the straw.

"For today can you call me Mira?" She insisted.

Dart pulled back his head away from the straw just before he could wrap his mouth around it. "Alright, Mira. Thank you for the sundae." Dart repeated himself with the new name going back to his straw and started to bring up the melted dairy underneath the ice cream in the straw. When he had sucked enough out with the ice cream now below the top of the glass cup, he stopped sucking and began to pop open the plastic package for the spoon so he may get to the ice cream without a fear of the ice cream suddenly falling down the side of the glass.

He popped the package open and brought out the plastic spoon and scooped a piece of ice cream.

"You know, I'm glad you called me out on a date in exchange for teaching me how to operate a practice model," Dart said relieved as he took the scoop into his mouth. Mira gazed her eyes up with interest from her sundae as she slurped more from her glass. "With the class league tournament in a few days I've been feeling a bit anxious to be honest. I guess having a calm day away from the IS Academy is all I needed to calm me down. So you have my gratitude, Mira."

"I guess we're both in the same boat, coming on a date for a different reason other than complying with the agreement we made," Mira chuckled. "As you know of the female dominance in society, males and females have been separated into different schools, granting more privileges to the females than the males. Because of this, both genders have lost the connection to go out and interact with the opposite gender, as hinted by the girls in the IS Academy. They're too shy and afraid to approach you and Orimura in case they did a bad job and ended up being hated for their awkward interaction with you. By going on a date with you, I'm getting more experience interacting with a male so you're a lifesaver as well."

"You didn't seem to be shy when you confronted Ichika and myself, well not shy, it seems you were jumping a bit too far when you acted seductive towards Ichika and I." Dart found a plot hole in her explanation.

"Trust me," she said with a smile. "I might have acted normal when I approached you two, but beforehand my heart was racing and I was so anxious. I sort of went with the temptation route when I approached to use the easiest way to talk with you two."

"Did you also know that might have been the most uncomfortable or awkward way to use?"

"Yeah…I had a hunch about that." She taped her fingers against her glass with shyly.

"If the girls really are inexperienced with talking to boys, I think Ichika and myself should talk to the other shy girls more commonly, even if it's just a simple greeting to help them interacting with the other gender. I mean, he and I might be the only boys the girls get to talk to before they graduate from school and enter the wide world." Dart rhetorically spoke with helpful suggestion to assist the other girls in the school.

"Yes, I think that'll help the girls a lot. Maybe sit with different girls at lunch every day, or greet them before and after school." Mira agreed with his idea with a nod and approving tone.

"Just because genders are divided outside, doesn't mean it has to be that way inside the academy, right?"

"You're more mature than I thought," Mira complimented smiling back.

"Only if others were the same in this separated world, eh?"

Mira and Dart continued their date at the ice cream parlor, went to the aquarium and ended the date with a stroll on the beach during sunset. After the fun and talk they had, the two headed back to the IS Academy before their curfew began.

Dart was a gentleman and escorted Mira to the door outside of her third year dorm. Mira who was taking the lead turned her body around holding her yellow bag at the front. She had a very pleasant smile on her face looking at her date, facing her and the door behind her.

"I really enjoyed spending the day and talking with you, Dart." She walked a few steps forward and peeked her kips up to Dart's right cheek planting a quick _thank you_ kiss. Dart blushed and rubbed the kisses spot slowly in a daze, causing a chuckle from Mira. "Good night Dart," she cheerfully bid goodnight walking into her dorm and out of Dart's sight.

Dart stood idle for five seconds being speechless. At least it wasn't on his lips and stole his first kiss away. With a happy smile on his face, he walked away and headed back to his dorm, more than ready for the class league match in a few days.

* * *

 **Next chapter will be the Dart vs Rin fight and I will confirm there will be no big robot to interfere with the tournament.**

 **Until next chapter guys!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Mega Float Guest – Actually in my mind there is a difference between an overpowered character and a Gary Stu or Mary Sue. Overpowered characters just have more power and/or experience than every character, such as a Dragon Ball Z character. Gary/Mary are original characters that have no experience in anything at all, yet they are able to master anything and everything in an instant or few minutes, have no weaknesses and has every single ability known to man like Ren from Star Wars: TFA**

* * *

 **Chapter VI**

 **Build Banshee vs Shenlong**

 **Next Week, Class League Match**

The day that every single person in the IS Academy had been waiting for a few days in endless and indescribable excitement had finally come, pitting each class representative against each other in order to see which class would come up on top ad etch their class number as the best class in the entire academy.

Just outside of the arena where the fights were going to take place was a board of the match-ups, surrounded by girls looking at who was facing who. They scrolled their eyes past the match-ups right to left of the four brackets until they could find who the only male class representative was up against. Spot on the left side was Dart Silver and he was up against the new class rep of Class 1-2, Huang Lingyin.

They were up first to battle.

"Silver's match is up now!"

"I can't wait to see his personal IS in battle!"

"We better find seats in the arena now!"

"Don't worry, if we don't find seats in the arena they'll show it throughout the school on monitors so there's no worry."

Inside the arena it was however, full to the brink with no free seats available in sight, even the steps were taken as a substitute chair. The female spectators chatted with themselves, how they were amped up for this tournament and they were all waiting in patience for the first match to start. Ling was already in the arena in her Shenlong IS on the ground, with two large axes stored on her back that were so strong they could crush the toughest of metal.

In the hangar where Dart was equipped in his black full armor IS, he was joined by Cecilia, Ichika and Houki. The latter being there because of Ichika.

"Who would have guess I would be taking on your childhood friend in the first fight, Ichika." Dart commented staring own to his right at the three supporters looking up at him.

"Try not to tick her off so much…or else you won't hear the end of her ramble, hehe." Ichika scratched the back of his head in a little joke. Ling was a time bomb ready to go off at any time if provoked, and she does not hold back.

"I'll keep that in mind," Dart replied smiling.

A miniature model of Ling's IS appeared on Dart's HUD. It was metallic gold and it spun in 3D showing off what her IS looks like in detail. The noticeable part was two circular shoulder pads with three spikes coming out of each one, and it showed something circular in the middle on both front and back.

"Her IS is called the Shenlong," Miss Yamada informed over the communications like from the hangar control room behind and above Dart. "This model is a close range type just like the Uchigane you used and Orimura's Byakushiki." She finished with the IS model disappearing from his HUD.

"The Shenlong, huh? What's next, she'll be calling it the Nataku when it's been upgraded?" Dart inserted a little Gundam WING joke.

"This match won't be like ours Dart, so please don't let your guard down," Cecilia cautioned Dart.

"You're right, I won't be using an IS with only a sword. I'll be using my personal IS with much more in the arsenal." Dart gave a thumbs up and a cheeky grin at Cecilia. After that, holographic lines appeared on both sides of the catapult, somehow pretending like it's a launch bay from a Gundam series.

[Will both contestants move to your designated positions at this time] a female voice that was not Chifuyu's or Maya's ordered as the weather protection roof of the arena slid open like it would do before a football or rugby match, removing the space restriction of both fighting IS.

Dart bent his knees slightly like he was inside a Gundam again, ' _Dart Silver_ , _Build Banshee, taking off!_ ' He mentally thought for the nostalgia launching out of the launch bay and into the open being instantly gazed at every female in the arena and in the academy watching through the monitors.

The Build Banshee flew up into the air leaving a trail of dark purple pixie dust from his Phase Shift Armor parts and met eyes with Ling and her Shenlong IS, spacing each other for their starting positions. Girls on the stadium and in the academy gasped with amazement for his IS, glittering particles from the knees, body and elbows.

"What so you think of my personal IS? Does it scream power and fear into your eyes" Dart began the word exchange with Ling with a little bit of confidence and boast for a first impression.

"Not really, that horn makes you look like a unicorn!" Ling spat back still holding a grudge for not trading rooms with Dart. But not for long. She'll win this fight and have the right to live with Ichika. "I'll give you one chance to surrender your room to me, or you'll experience excruciating pain! FYI the Absolute Defense isn't perfect. If your attack is strong enough to penetrate the shields, it transfers the damage to the pilot. It'll hurt a lot for you but it won't be lethal."

"Duh, I learnt that lesson last week. Why do you think we attend this school to learn about the IS?" Dart countered.

[Both contestants, you may start the match after the alarm]

 _HHHHRRRRNNNNGGGG!_

The loud alarm sounded initiating the battle.

Ling reached her hand over her back and tightened her IS hand on one of the handles for her big axes, bringing it out for battle. Dart respected she wanted to start with one melee weapon, so he went with the same idea. Bringing his right hand out, he summoned a green beam saber.

His NT-D Mode meter started to count up in percentages quickly, 1%, 2%, 3%.

The Shenlong and Build Banshee charged towards each other but both called each other's bluffs, flying past each other and spinning around in circles as they rose up staring at each other. After a few rotations and Rin had gained some air above Dart, they charged once again with Rin slamming her axe down on Dart's beam saber which blocked the attack. However since she had the momentum from falling down from the sky she had more pressure put onto Dart's beam saber. He was able to defend, but had a hard time returning the hard force from the height disadvantage.

"Not bad," Ling complimented staring down at the blocking Dart.

"The battle is still fresh so don't assume things so quickly!" Dart returned holding back his left hand and quickly summoning his AA-VN in closed form and punching Rin in the chest, dealing damage to her shields dropping from 600 to 511.

"That must be the _Armed Armor VN (Vibration Nails)_ ," Chifuyu spectated in the hangar control room with Ichika, Cecilia and Houki in the room with her looking at the screen viewing the battle.

"Ghh," Rin groaned being pushed back up and putting more distance away from him and her. She came to a halt being 20 metres away from Dart, who unequipped his beam saber in his right hand and summoned his _Armed Armor BS(Beam Smart gun)_ returning the default look of the Build Banshee prior to becoming an IS.

The BS folded forward as the Build Banshee aimed his right arm forward and firing a plasma shot at the Shenlong, evading doing a right barrel roll and firing her Dragon Cannons back at Dart continuously with heavy yellow shots. The male ceased his BS shot and changed plans to evading. Dart flew randomly in the air to evade the shots the best he could against the stray shots, however one hit him on the chest and launched him back with hard hitting force. He recovered before he could hit is back on the ground and stood up straight.

"What the fuck was that?" He gritted asked himself looking at the Shenlong above. "It took out nearly 300 of my shields with a single shot!"

"What on Earth was that?!" Cecilia exclaimed with worry.

"What she used was a shock cannon," Miss Yamada swing her chair around a bit so she could look at the panicked Cecilia. "It's a weapon that compresses nearby space and shoots out the resulting shockwave as a projectile. The Shenlong's cannons can fire at any direction without any limitations due to the barrel's angle of skew. In other words, it has no weak spot." Miss Yamada turned back to the screen. "No matter where Silver goes he will always be in range."

Dart now looked at his NT-D gauge and saw it soared from 16% up to 43%. It must increase while he took damage too. The harder he's hit the more it increases.

 _'_ _Fair enough…'_ Dart thought as he returned his attention back to Ling in the air, resuming to suppress him with shock bullets. Dart swooped left and right charging up to the aired IS unequipping his VN and BS in exchange for one beam saber.

Dart flew up to the Shenlong this time stopping before at her level and swinging his beam saber across his chest for a vertical slice. It was blocked when Ling held her axe upside down and stopped the beam saber from getting close to her chest.

"Big mistake!" She grinned bringing her other axe from her back with her spare hand and downward horizontally sliced him in the chest, launching him down before she shot two more shock bullets at Dart and flung him down to the ground with force, impaling him to the ground covered in a smoke of dust.

 ** _BOOM!_**

The females gasped with horror fearing for Dart's welling. Cecilia gasped as well with the most panic covering her mouth with both her hands, only staring at the smoke that covered his IS.

"And with that I win," Ling grinned victoriously waiting for the horn to go, announcing her obvious victory. She waited for a few more seconds, and the horn still didn't ring. "What's the hold up?!" She exclaimed impatiently.

She looked down at the smoke and she felt a chill up her spine, dark purple eyes looking at her coldly with a piercing glaze. More dark purple lights showed underneath the dark purple eyes, resembling loose limbs of the IS.

Chifuyu widened her eyes finally knowing what this mode was as it appeared on the screen showing everyone in the room what was activated. It showed a large square prompt with three black letters in big font with red virus-infecting waves in the background. Along the bottom was a light dark red ribbon with smaller black text. They both read:

 _NT-D Engaged_

 _Enabling Psycho-Frame_

"Psycommu systems?" Cecilia asked with absolute wonder, no idea what this means.

"What does this mean, Miss Orimura?" Ichika asked her sister for some clues since she was more experienced with IS and its history.

"Psycommu…" Chifuyu muttered to herself with curiosity. Just what does it mean? ' _Psy…commu…_ _Could it be something related to psychic?'_ She mentally deduced telling from the 'psy' in the name which relates to something of mental activity.

The Build Banshee now in destroyer mode shot up into the air with far superior speed, leaving a dark purple trail behind him.

"So fast!" Ling spoke in panic firing her shock cannons into the air in hopes to shoot down the speedy opponent.

Like connecting the dots in the air the Build Banshee zipped across the sky evading the shots with ease thanks to his heightened mental awareness to react quicker and pilot his IS with his thoughts alone.

"Whoa!"

"Dart's IS is amazingly fast!"

After the zipping across the sky, the Build Banshee equipped the open AA-VN in his right hand and sped towards Ling, grabbing her by the head, spinning around and throwing her down to the ground quickly and stronger thanks to the momentum of spinning Ling around.

 ** _BOOM!_**

"Guh!" She collided with the ground and got back up on her feet and turned around, now staring up at the Build Banshee with rage. "What up with the big idea?!" She hissed with venom.

The two expanded shields on the Build Banshee's back due to the NT-D mode detached from his back and now were able to act like funnels, leaving a dark purple trail where they flew and fired their yellow Mega Beam Cannons at the grounded Ling, deciding to evade their attacks jumping about.

"So those things on his back were bits?" Cecilia questioned, only guessing half of what they were.

"You're half right. They're also shields with something called I-Fields in them." Miss Yamada explained recalling when she examined Dart's IS for his weapons and systems.

Ling was in a very bad pinch, having to deal with funnels at the same time. But Dart was inactive, staring down at her doing nothing.

 _'_ _Chance!'_ Ling thought seeing the weakness of a funnel-type IS pilot. The rule of thumb of funnels is that to use them, the IS pilot must concentrate on using them which left the pilot vulnerable to attack.

Ling diverted her evading away and charged up as fast as she could to the idle Dart.

"Now you're mine!"

She swung her axe downward to the Build Banshee, however Dart was ready for her and held his right hand up, emitting a beam Tonfa that was bigger and wider and blocked her attack.

"What?!" She exclaimed as Dart held her in place and left her open for two mega beam cannon shots from the back. They both hit her, backing her lean forward from the impact. Dart kicked her vertically across the chest following a downward claw slice, slicing her with three nails at the same time and launched her back down to the ground.

 ** _BOOM_**

For the finale the Build Banshee raised its right arm in the air, equipping the Beam Magnum and aimed it down to Ling as it charged so when he aimed it at Ling he could fire it whenever he was ready. With the two shields by his sides with their barrels aimed at Ling too, two mega beam cannons and one beam magnum shot fired at the same time all heading to Ling with pin-point accuracy.

 ** _PEW_**

 ** _KA-BOOM_**

[The winner, Silver Dart from Class 1-1. Remaining shields 101.]

The battle was finished.

The crowd erupted in cheer and a round of applause. The Build Banshee lowered itself to the ground as it deactivated NT-T mode, returned the shields back to the back and was back to normal. The dust cleared and it revealed Ling out of her IS, lying on the ground coming to terms that she lost. She was beaten.

Dart walked over to the grounded Ling in the small crater and when he came to a stop in front of her, giving him a slight sad expression he held out his right arm to her.

"That was a great battle, Huang." He complimented with a small smile on his face. Ling looked at his hand for a few seconds.

"Yeah," she softly said taking his hand and being helped up onto her feet. Louder applause was heard from this show of sportsmanship.

Cecilia sighed relieved, "Dart won." She said pleased no longer fearing Dart had to fight against those shock cannons.

Miss Yamada and Chifuyu both closed the case that this NT-D mode was nothing more than a speed boost, bringing new weapons to the fray just like when Ichika's IS evolved from the default setting to First Shift. But it didn't mean that the origins of his Build Banshee was not yet closed, and it is still being investigated.

* * *

 **Night, Room 1025**

The day finished with the conclusion of the Class League tournament with Dart Silver the winner of the tournament. As the prize for winning and showing that Class 1-1 was a class to look out for, the entire class received half a year of free dessert coupons. It felt like being in primary school again.

"You were awesome out there!" Ichika complimented Dart sitting on his bed with an excited tone congratulating his pal.

"Thank you Ichika," he replied.

"By the way, what exactly is NT-D mode?" Ichika inquired recalling today when a prompt on the screen appeared in his face notifying him, Chifuyu and the others that NT-D was engaged and something called Psycommu System being activated. He was keen to know what it actually was.

"NT-D mode, short for **N** ew **T** ype **D** estroyer or I should be calling as the IS-D ( **I** nfinite **S** tratos **D** estroyer) now, is a system that only my Build Banshee has. It allows me to pilot completely with my mental thoughts, increasing my speed, reaction times and allowing the full effect of my weapons as you saw when my VN, the closed fist prior to NT-D when it became claws."

"Whoa! What generation is your IS? It must be a fourth or fifth to be that powerful and advanced."

"Well actually-"

 _Knock Knock_

The door was knocked twice interrupting Dart in mid-sentence. These timely interruptions, eh?

"I'll get it this time," Ichika offered standing up from his bed and making his way to the door in wonder who might it be. It could be Ling to talk to him or Dart, any girl to congratulate Dart on winning the tournament. Who knows?

 _Click Whoosh_

Ichika opened the door to Miss Yamada standing on the other side, showing some hesitation on her face, like what she said was going to complicate things more.

"Hello Orimura, I'm afraid I have some bad news for Silver…" She awkwardly said straightening her glasses to compose herself. "I'm sorry to say this, but Silver isn't finished playing magical chairs yet…"

"What do you mean Miss Yamada?" Ichika tilted his head to the right arching an eyebrow. Dart overheard this and peeked his head forward so his head was seen on the right side of Ichika while he sat on the bed.

"Well…to put it blunt…he has to change living arrangements again…"

"Again?" Dart expressed his concern and slight rage getting off his bed and walking towards the door to get more information from Miss Yamada.

"I am very sorry Silver!" Miss Yamada apologized greatly; even so much she was bowing.

Dart breathed in and out of his nose dismissing the angry tone in his voice, going for a quick walk to the front of his bed and picked up his bag of belongings and returning the door. Walking off more anger helped a tad.

"I guess we're going to be roommates with girls again." He held up his right hand as a sign of farewell, "Good luck with your new roommate, Ichika."

"Thanks, you too Dart." Ichika nodded wishing him luck too.

Dart left the room and followed Maya who was extremely empathic to have two boys split apart and having them live with the opposite gender where it is clearly a bad idea.

Ichika closed the door behind Dart and Yamada and now turned back into the room, silent and alone for the night.

A few minutes later of walking without a single word spoken Dart and Miss Yamada had come to the new room where Dart would be staying. However he had a moment of Déjà vu. He looked up above the door and saw the room number as 1052, the room of Cecilia Alcott.

"I'm going to room with Cecilia?" Dart asked turning his head to the green haired teacher on his left. He placed his left hand on his hip reminding himself of something. "Are you absolutely sure that this is the room I will be staying in? The last time you led me to a new room it was the wrong one."

Maya nodded once with confidence, 100% sure she was right this time. "You've been getting along with Miss Alcott recently, so we thought that rooming you with her was a good idea since the two of you are now friends."

"I think classmates would be more suitable," Dart turned his head back to the door and he was about to knock on it to get Cecilia to open it, but she beat him to it from hearing Dart's and Miss Yamada's voice on the other side of the door.

"Hello Dart and Miss Yamada. I couldn't help but overhear that Dart will be my roommate," she greeted in a casual tone wearing a long light blue night gown reaching to her knees.

"I'm surprised that this greeting has a more friendly tone to it compared to last time," Dart joked lightly.

"Yes…well that was a horrible greeting and I wish to forget about it."

"Yes he will be, Miss Alcott. I hope you don't mind," Yamada said hoping Cecilia would say yes.

"Of course it wouldn't!" She replied with joy clapping her hands together, quickly turning down her tone and excitement level back to normal. She moved to the side and gestured inside with her left hand, "Please do come in Dart."

"Thank you kindly Cecilia," Dart nodded walking into the room with Cecilia closing the door behind her. The first thing that Dart could differentiate was that the second bed which had a princess-like look to it, having blue drapes tied to the four corners of the bed. The other bed was normal, no special features at all.

Dart stopped and turned his head to the left staring at the normal bed. "I guess that one is mine."

"Yes, it is."

Speaking of beds, he really wanted to go to one from the day he had fighting in numerous IS battles until he came out the victor. Dart gave a yawn placing his hand over his mouth.

"I think I should hit the hay early tonight," he said tired. He turned to Cecilia, "Would you mind looking away until I get dressed for bed?"

"Ohh, sure," Cecilia quickly looked away from the male with a blush on her face, hearing the sound of clothes stripping behind her. She could peek around and have a little look at the changing male behind her, but she respected his privacy too much to do it. The undressing noise stopped as bed covers being shuffled was heard.

When the bed sheets stopped making a noise, it was safe for her to turn around. While he was in bed, she might as well go to since she is dressed properly for bed. She walked to the light switch and turned every light on, leaving her in the darkness with little to be visible.

She walked past Dart's bed and was about to pop into her own bed. She held out her hand for her bed covers but paused, looking at Dart's bed. Her heart was racing in thought of actually sleeping in the same bed as Dart. It's just…she felt so safe and protected when Dart hugged her a few days ago. No one other than her mother would hug her.

She wanted to feel it again.

She withdrew her hand away from her bed and turned her body around to Dart.

"Um, excuse me Dart. Would you mind if I slept with you? For tonight…?" She fidgeted with her fingers as her heart was racing from asking such a question easy to say no to.

"Why?"

"Well, when you hugged me on the school roof a few days ago…I felt safe, happy and protected in your embrace. I…I know this is weird of me to ask and I won't get angry if you say no, but…can I feel the same embrace tonight?" She asked with a blush.

"Are you that desperate to find a boyfriend?" He sighed softly before he grabbed the bed sheets and threw them over him, leaving an uncovered part of the bed inviting Cecilia in. He remembered how hard her life was and how traumatizing it was, so he wanted to give the comfort and happiness before.

"T-thank you!" Cecilia said joyfully walking slowly to Dart's bed and crawling over it to get close to Dart as she could before scooting herself into position and throwing the bed sheets over her. When she was inside the bed sheets feeling the warmth and laid close to Dart as she could, he wrapped his left arm around Cecilia's neck and placed his hand on her upper back, while her wrapped his right arm around her waist and brought her closer to him and hugging her to sleep.

Cecilia could feel something was off… He was shirtless, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

She laid her head against his chest, falling asleep to the peaceful heartbeat of the boy and drifted off to sleep while embraced by someone who she could love to marry someday in the near future.

* * *

 **Morning, Room 1052**

At 6:45am in the morning Cecilia opened her eyes after a very blissful sleep. She slept like a baby without worry still feeling the embrace of the man who she slept with throughout the night. She opened her eyes refreshingly rubbing them to get sleep out of them, looking at Dart's sleeping and cute face.

"Excuse me Dart, but it is morning already." She softly and happily said in a casual tone to the gentleman to her side. He didn't react at all continuing to sleep. "Dart," she said more loudly to get the heavy sleeper awake.

Since words won't get to him, the next method was trying to get him up with physical pain. She raised her left hand out of the bed sheets and clamped his nose with her middle and index fingers cutting off the air supply for a brief moment. A few seconds later he opened his eyes and quickly sat up, changing his source of oxygen to his mouth.

He breathed in and out desperately with Cecilia's fingers removed from his reopened nose. After he regained his normal breathing pattern he looked to his left seeing Cecilia kneeling on the bed looking at him.

"What was that for?!" He yelled bearing his teeth.

"Humph," she crossed her arms and looked her head away. "Consider that your new alarm clock. I told you to wake up, but you didn't listen." She looked back to Dart who quickly pinched his index and middle fingers together against the nose of Cecilia.

"Stop it!" She demanded trying to force a release, staring at Dart pinching her nose for a few seconds before he released purposely.

"Now we're even," he said rolling out of bed and walked to his bag of belongings on the floor and getting out a fresh IS Academy uniform while Cecilia walked into the bathroom carrying an IS Academy uniform, puffing her cheeks out and getting ready in the closed bathroom.

After some time in the bathroom Cecilia came out of the bathroom fully dressed, hair combed and tidy, carrying her folded blue night gown in her hands and walked over to her cabinet and placed it in one of her drawers. While this time Dart had brushed his teeth and was ready.

The two walked out of the room with Cecilia locking the room behind her. Dart and Cecilia didn't notice that the few students getting ready for the day had stared speechlessly at them, witnessing Dart now being roomed with Cecilia.

The two roommates began their walk to the cafeteria to have breakfast with each other, though in silence until Dart spoke up. Since two of the nearby girls, Honne Nohotoke in a yellow fox hood and Kiyoka Aikawa were ready, they decided to be nosey and follow Cecilia and Dart to the cafeteria from a safe distance.

"I have to admit," he began with a soft and slightly humiliated tone, a blush appearing on his cheeks. "You were really comfy to hug last night…"

"H-hug?" Both sneaky girls said with the softest and quietest tone trying to prevent their surprise alerting them to their presence.

"D-Dart…" she flustered feeling a blush coming on.

"So…how did you feel last night?" He asked rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Did being hugged to sleep feel as you thought it would be?"

Kiyoka and Honne stopped in their footsteps ceasing their spy nature, looking at east other shockingly

"D-did Alcott sleep in the same bed as Dart?" Kiyoka asked with widened eyes.

"We have to tell the others," Honne suggested holding her arms out like a praying mantis with her over stretched sleeves reaching further than her hands. The two girls ran in the opposite direction to find a quicker and stealthier route to the classroom so they can tell the others of Alcott's and Silver's incident last night.

"Y-yeah I did," she nodded gently. She was filled with the same level of humiliation as Dart. "It was very soothing."

"I'm glad…"

"Hey…Dart… If you don't mind….c-can we please do it tonight?" She boldly asked, making Dart flinch and look stuttered. "I really enjoyed being hugged to sleep last night, a-and since you thought I was comfy to hug as well, maybe we can come to a mutual decision."

Dart gave it a thought and ten seconds late of silent thinking, Dart gave an answer.

"Tsk, fine. But if this mutual decision has to work we can't wake each other up in a dangerous, harmful or silly way. We do it the considerate way. Deal?"

Cecilia blushed with happiness expressing her feeling right now with a big smile. "Yes!" She said clinging onto Dart's left arm and walked next to him, being escorted by a gentleman. And he said chivalry died when the IS cam about.

* * *

 **Later, Class 1-1**

"Hey! You have to listen to this guys!" Honne said aloud excitedly to a group of girls currently waiting in the classroom for class to start. There were fewer than 7 people in the class at the moment with Houki, Ichika, Dart and Cecilia absent.

"Hear what?" One of the other girls peeked with interest.

"We saw Alcott and Dart coming out of the same room!" Kiyoka explained unable to hold back the news.

"What?!"

"No way!"

"What's even more shocking is that Dart _hugged_ Cecilia to sleep! In other words, they slept in the same bed!"

"EH?!"

"You're lying! Dart would never be that friendly to Alcott, especially since after the first day!"

"But...Alcott and Dart have gotten non-hostile to each other after the Class rep match."

"That's true..."

Their gossiping ended when Ichika, Dart, Houki and Cecilia entered the room by the front door.

"What's everyone so excited about?" Ichika asked overhearing loud voices from the room.

"N-nothing!" The girls replied in a choir.

Chifuyu came up from behind the four blocking the door and with a demanding voice, "Get in your seats now. Home room is starting," the four moved out of the way and quickly scurried to their seats ready for the class.

Miss Yamada was at the front and she looked hesitant, constantly blinking and looking around the room.

"Erm…we have another transfer student joining us today." She informed. The door to the left opened and in came a person with short blond hair, purple eyes wearing the male version of the IS Academy uniform. It was hard to believe but this person was a boy, emitting an aura of beauty around him, making the girls around the glass to _ooh_ in wonder trying to see if this was reality or just a dream.

"I'm Charle Dunois, and I have come from France. It is nice to meet you." The new male identified as Charle Dunois greeted in a French accent. Ichika was overjoyed to have a second male to talk to, but Dart had his suspicions about how this guy's accent sounded.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! Sorry for the late upload. I've been wrapping my head around finishing all the trophies for Gundam Breaker 3 (which I have now done), playing Sniper Elite 4 and Super Robot Wars V (English sub).**

 **CasualFictionWriter23 – Yeah, all of my time is practically free so I can either play games, watch anime/read manga or get my head down to work on the next chapter of one of my fan-fictions.**

 **Mega float guest – How Dart is a good pilot is from the four days he spent training constantly before the Class Representative match. It's a behind-the-scenes thing.**

 **GMSonofIdeon – Yeah, at the last minute I forgot the Banshee/Unicorn has the Psycoframe and accidentally put the Psycommu instead.**

 **Geekreader888 – I don't intend to add in any other OCs at the moment. I am going as far as Season 1 with a 50/50 if I should do Season 2. If I do decide to Season 2 then maybe I'll accept a few OC offers to pair up with the other three girls.**

 **Mochiguy911 – I'm not trying to make Dart a Gary Stu or any of the other OCs in other Gundam stories to make him perfectly fine to kill someone (which killing will not occur in this story).**

 **GeassDragon – I swapped rooms again because Charles is entering the story and I'm keeping the story mostly canon.**

* * *

 **Chapter VII**

 **The French Student**

Standing before the class managing to remain composed with all the female stares aimed at him in the classroom; was a sharply dressed boy with blond hair with a little ponytail to keep his medium long hair in one place. He looked at the entire class with his purple eyes and with a very confident and unfazed tone he addressed the girls and boys.

"I'm Charles Dunois, and I have come from France. It is nice to meet you." He greeted with an obvious French accent speaking in Japanese. Little did he know he was about to be bombarded with girlish screams.

"You're a boy…?" One of the girls asked for confirmation. It was starting to become difficult to judge dream from reality. In their case it would be most likely a dream to see a cute boy such as him coming to the IS Academy and joining their class to make it the third boy in the world to pilot an IS.

"Oui, I heard about a male student, pardon my rudeness for noticing the second boy, in the same situation as me so I transferred here," Charles finished explaining and here comes the ear busting moment, the moment of girlish excited shrieks.

"Welcome back Déjà vu," Dart muttered to himself unpleasantly, blocking his ears with his hands to reduce the damage of the loud cheers from the front and back of his seat. To his right wasn't as bad, considering it was Cecilia and she was surprised to see another male in the Academy, but it wasn't something to go head-over-heels for.

"There's a third male student!"

"And he's in our class, which makes Class 1-1 have all the boys!"

"He's the type that girls want to protect!"

"SILENCE!" Chifuyu demanded with a tone of authority, and her wish was granted. All the girls stopped their comments within a second. She wasn't in the mood to deal with screaming girls again and waste time in her class.

Ah, sweet silence.

"Today we're conducting a joint practical training with Class 1-2." She informed her class of the first class of the day in a calmer tone. "I want everyone changed and assemble on the second arena ASAP. And Orimura and Silver, since you three are all males I want you to keep an eye out for Dunois. Dismissed."

Pulled out chair sounds was heard next and slight talk with each other as Dart and Ichika met at the front near Charles was standing. When all three had met face-to-face, Charles extended her hand out to Ichika to greet with a handshake.

"So you're Orimura? Nice to meet you," when he tried the simple greeting gesture Ichika took his hand reacting with a taken aback expression on Charless's face, although the skin was softer than Dart's. It felt strange for a boy.

"No time to stand around, we have to get out quickly," Ichika then towed Charles out of the door with Dart in pursuit exiting the class via the front door and leaving the girls to get their bags ready to walk to the same destination as the three boys were – the locker rooms.

As the three boys left the room and were out of sight, the girls in the room dreamily sighed, unable to get the cute face of Charles out of their minds. Dart and Ichika were attractive too…in a manly way.

"We're going to be changing in the arena's locker room before the girls get there, so you better get used to beating the girls there" Ichika explained to Charles speed walking through the hallways. They would like to run but running was prohibited.

"It might be a tiresome chore, but we don't want to encounter the girls while their changing," Dart added.

"Oh…right," Charles replied with some embarrassment.

Ichika saw his expression from the corner of his left eye and saw Charles looking uncomfortable. "What's wrong Charles?"

 _"_ _Cough._ Maybe you should let go of Charles's hand. He isn't a child to be escorted after all," Dart emphasized on Charles's behavior.

"Oh…sorry," Ichika let go of Charles's hand and brought back a normal expression to his face.

Just as the three were about to reach a T-junction in the hallways, from the right corridor up ahead slid one girl in front of their path pointing her finger at them.

"I see the new transfer student!"

Another one came onto the stage doing the same posture at the first girl.

"And he's with Orimura and Silver!"

"How the hell can they have word spread throughout the school this fast?!" Dart questioned surprisingly.

Then behind them was a class the three boys had passed and out came a mob of girls aimed at them.

"There he is!"

"Move it! Outta my way!"

Suddenly the three boys were stuck in the middle, surrounded between two crazy and excited mobs of girls from the front and back, like being pigs in Piggy in the Middle as they closed in on the three.

"I do like Orimura's dark blue and Silver's dark brown hair, but I like the blond too!"

"We have to make a run for it," Ichika obviously said. Two boys started to run forward towards the mob of girls at the front either holding onto each other and embracing in the moment together, or looking excited that the boys were heading towards them. Ichika and Charles found an opening through the mob and started to run through it and legged it.

Dart on the other hand stayed behind, walking to the front mass of girls and addressed each one. "I'm afraid this is a bad time to talk, but if you would like to chat I'd be happy to do it during lunch time." He ended with a two finger salute and a smile running off as well, leaving his invitation to them to join him for lunch. The girls were more excited now.

He did promise to help the girls talk with a boy to increase their confidence talking to one in the future.

* * *

 **\- Arena Locker Room -**

The three gents made it to the locker room panting their lungs out after a long run to the arena, successfully to lose the love-struck girls back in the hallway.

"If we're going to be chased by girls every day I might not need to worry about my daily exercise," Dart giggled in-between his repetitive and uncontrollable pants. He took a seat on the bench between the lockers to get some reprieve and catch his breath.

"We might as well get used to it for the next three years, because I don't think those girls would give up so easily." Ichika replied as he panted as well.

"I'm sorry for already getting you two into trouble," Charles randomly apologized as he rested up too and caught his breath.

"It's okay. You're like our savior after all. It's hard to be the few needles in the haystack in the academy." Ichika responded.

"No. Really?"

"Yeah. My name is Orimura Ichika, but you can call me Ichika." Ichika introduced himself.

"My name's Silver Dart, but Dart is more welcome," Dart followed the introduction procedure next.

"It is nice to meet you Ichika and Dart, you may call me Charles. Speaking of Dart, I didn't know there was a second IS male pilot before me."

"It was one of those last second moments," Dart answered simply.

Ichika looked up to the clock in the locker room and he became panicked, seeing the time as 08:43am. They were going to be late if they didn't speed things up before 08:45 when class starts!

"Oh shit! We're going to be late!" Ichika picked it up to second gear rushing to his locker and starting to get changed with a folded IS clothing in it.

"Crap!" Dart instantly got off the bench and went to his locker just three locks down from Ichika's at the end. Charles strangely squealed embarrassingly, turning around with his hands on his eyes. Dart turned his head around to the shy Charles behind him. "What are you doing Charles?"

"I….I'm going to change now… So can you please turn around?"

"I didn't intend to peek," Dart turned back to the front suspiciously and took off his IS shirt and replaced it with the IS suit placing it over his chest.

"Done," Charles said straightening his top onto his chest.

"Damn that was fast," Ichika complimented bewildered. "You gotta show me someday how to put it on that fast, especially with your _thing_ in the way."

"Thing?"

"Your dick," Dart boldly replied with no humiliation turning around to the dressed and wildly embarrassed Charles hearing the man's privates spoken so casually. When he laid his eyes on him, he grew more doubtful of this guy's true identity. Charles had a very…feminine build. It was curvy around the hip line, and the legs were thin unlike any average male of this age. To add to this puzzle is that Charles looked away from the changing boys and requested not to be looked at while he changed. "Charles, are you a girl?" He interrogated.

Charles stuttered, "Ahh… No I am a boy."

"No time for talk, we need to get to the arena now!" Ichika interjected rushing to get changed and saved Charles's butt who used this opportunity to run into the arena since he was dressed and left Ichika and Dart to finish up changing.

 _'_ _Charles…you're not fooling me with that boy getup.'_

* * *

 **\- Arena 2 -**

Filed up into lines and rows stood Class 1-1 and 1-2, standing at attention with Miss Orimura up front with the absence of Miss Yamada.

"Your practical training starts now and we're going to start off with a real life battle. Huang and Alcott, up front!"

"Yes ma'am!" Both girls said clearly and loudly simultaneously.

"Oh man why do I always have to be picked?" Ling muttered with distaste, walking up to the front.

"What a vulgar spectacle, do I have to do this?" Cecilia asked in the same tone as Ling, walking up to the front too and when they both got to the front and looked at the class, Miss Orimura whispered in their ears.

"Show a little more enthusiasm. This'll be a good chance to show off to the boys."

Bang. The girls turned their frowns upside down to a smile and were now hyped up. Cecilia did want to impress Dart with her IS skills more and Ling wanted to show off her abilities to Ichika.

Cecilia flicked her IS earring and brought up her cocky attitude again, "It's time for England's Candidate, Cecilia Alcott to step up and take charge."

"Yeah! And I can show the difference between a personal IS and a training model." Ling acted confident next crossing her arms. The result of their cockiness to show off to the crowd was greeted back with sweat drops from everyone except for Miss Orimura.

"So who's my opponent? I wouldn't mind tossing you around Huang."

"Hehe, that's my line. You're dead meat."

"Don't get ahead of yourselves girls," Miss Orimura shot down their overconfident and boasting attitudes with a stoic look on her face as always. "You haven't met your opponent."

Whistling sounds was started to be heard in the air, following up with a loud female scream. It was getting closer.

"Ahhhh! Get out of the way!" The warning female was Miss Yamada spiraling down fast to the ground in a green IS. The girls, Dart and Charles got out of the way. Ichika was the only one frozen with shock as Miss Yamada crashed to the ground directly on top o Ichika.

 ** _BOOM_**

The ground shook a tad, shooting up a mushroom cloud of dust where the crash happened. The cloud of dust quickly disappeared with the girls and boys rushing over to check if everything was okay, and what they saw was something assertive. Ichika was lying on top of Miss Yamada in her IS on the ground, and Ichika was groping Miss Yamada's left breast with his right hand, keeping his other one on her right arm.

"I…uh…excuse me… Orimura…." Miss Yamada said with a blush on her cheeks and she looked like she was enjoying being groped by a man. Ichika came to his senses opening his eyes and feeling his face was between two big and bouncy mountains with his right hand on one of them. When he realized he was groping his teacher he freaked out raising his head away from her chest while keeping his hand on the breast.

"Yes…there does seem to be…a little problem," Miss Yamada said softly with more blushes turning her head to the left, avoiding eye contact. She began to wave her right against her face for a few seconds. "You see…if this continues Miss Orimura will be my sister-in-law, and I do have to admit it sounds quite taking."

Ichika stood back up as quickly as he could and instantly apologized sincerely. After he did that he was greeted with a call to his name in a very angry manner.

"ICHIKA~!" Ling yelled connecting her two axes together into one double sided weapon and she threw it as hard as she could to Ichika, but lucky for him Miss Yamada was there armed with a sniper rifle. With her precise aiming she quickly lied on her stomach, took aim and shot at the spinning axe and sent if flying away from Ichika to his left.

Everyone was speechless how she was able to hit an object that fast with one precise shot. Her level of skill is amazing, she could be on Kira Yamato's level for hitting things accurately.

"Miss Yamada might not look like it, but she used to be a Cadet Representative. Making a shot like that is nothing for her." Miss Orimura praised.

"B-but that was a long time ago. Besides, I never got past that…" Miss Yamada showed her modesty by blushing as she stood up and straightened her glasses.

"How long are you brats are going to space off? Get on with the program already," Miss Orimura snapped the two girls back into reality, who were going up in action against Miss Yamada.

"You mean it's two against one?"

"That's not really a good idea."

"Oh don't worry," Chifuyu responded with absolute confidence in Miss Yamada. Chifuyu placed her left hand against her hip with the back of her hand leaning against her body, "I'm sure the two of you will lose on no time."

This got the fire of the bellies of Cecilia and Ling burning. They weren't going to lose one match when the advantage was on their side.

"I'm not going to hold back!"

"We weren't being serious earlier!"

"W-well. Here I come!"

 **2 Minutes Later**

Cecilia and Ling were both on the ground suffering a complete defeat with Miss Yamada shredding not a single sweat. The Raphael Revive, the training IS that she used was more fitted for different roles from defense, melee and ranged combat. What brought the two girls to defeat was their lack of coordination. They were fighting by themselves rather as a team, leading the two girls to crahs into each other and allow Miss Yamada to blast their asses off with a grenade launcher.

"I guess that wraps it up," Yamada said cheerfully landing on the ground.

"I…I can't believe this… To be humiliated like this…" Cecilia gritted her teeth with anger as she lay on the ground shedding a tear or two from the two-on-one battle.

"Sheesh, what's with your maneuvers?! She easily saw through what you're thinking!" Ling tried to put the blame on Cecilia, staring at her.

"Excuse me but I should be the one saying that to you, Huang!" Cecilia returned the blame.

 _Clap Clap_

Miss Orimura clapped twice to stop the bickering, "Well, do you all now understand what the teachers of the ID Academy are really capable of? I hope you'll be showing them some respect from now on. Especially _you two_." She stared down to the tearing, humiliated and scolded girls. The two defeated girls stood up, "Why didn't you two try to establish a connection with the other? You could easily avoid collusions by doing that. Know your teammates position and movement. Understand that and victory will always be yours. Knowing what to do and when to do it as the situation demands will increase your chances of winning while minimizing the risks. That is what " _cooperation"_ means."

"Alright get ready for the practice," Chifuyu stopped her lesson with Ling and Cecilia. "Orimura, Dunois, Silver, Huang and Alcott get in a line." The five spoken students got in a line as ordered by Chifuyu in front of the classes of students. "The ones who have their own personal units will be the group leaders. Each leader will take eight students each. Now, form your group!"

In an instant the girls flooded to Ichika, Dart and Charles and paying no mind to Cecilia or Ling who somewhat felt emotionally broken.

"Let's do this, Orimura!'

"You don't mind me joining, right?"

"Take me into your group!"

"I want to see your moves, Dunois!"

"Teach me what I don't know yet."

"Can I see your Build Banshee again, Silver?"

Chifuyu was really pissed off now, shown by a tick mark showing on her head. "WHY YOU IDIOTIC BRATS! Everyone sort out accordingly to seating numbers! And the next time I find anyone slacking today, you will be doing laps around the field a hundred time with an IS behind your back!"

The fear struck the students really hard going back into an organized group professionally and walking off to a designated group in a single file. When the girls were arranged into their groups, the ones in the boy's groups were excited and cheerful, glad they were blessed with their last name that designated them to one of the boys alphabetically. While on the other hand for Ling and Cecilia, the only excited conversations they heard were questions begging to know about Dart and Ichika.

And so the IS lesson started.

"Erm, okay… Let's do this in seat number order, so the first one is…" Dart began talking to his group, scanning his finger left and right to see who was first on the list.

"It's me, Nohotoke Honne," the girl from Class 1-1 that would always wear a yellow hoodie with fox ears and outstretched sleeves said raising her right arm in the air cheerfully. This time she didn't have a yellow hoodie so her arms were visible.

"Ah, Nohotoke. It seems I get to teach you first. Have you ever piloted an IS before?"

"Yep!"

"Then please get into the IS."

Dart and Honne walked to the back of the deactivated Uchigane IS with Dart picking Honne up in a princess carry to the jealousy of the other girls. Aiming her legs diagonally in the air he helped Honne got her footing into the IS's legs that was close to the ground. She got into the IS and started to walk around briefly before coming back to where she started and jumping off the IS, leaving it in the air to the misfortune of others.

"Why did you leave the IS as it was?" Dart asked with annoyance.

Honne acted innocent, rubbing the back of her head like a klutz. "Oops, I'm sorry, Dart." She then chuckled afterwards leaving Dart to face-palm himself. He swore the girls were doing it for the fun and torture of Dart.

On Ichika's end, he was encountering the same problem. The girls would walk around in the IS and jump out with it still standing causing the male to activate his IS and princess carry each girl to the suit.

Up next was Houki's turn.

She was hesitant at first to getting hoisted in the air by Ichika, but when he carried her in his arms up to the idle Uchigane she felt safe and overcome with happiness experiencing a princess carry for the first time. It was her dream came true. Ichika helped her into the IS, and Houki figured this would be a good time to ask Ichika something.

"Um, Ichika. If you're not busy at lunch, would you like to have lunch together?" She was slightly more hesitant to pop the question as she got comfortable placing her arms and legs into the mechanical limbs of the IS.

"Lunch with you?" Ichika tilted his head repeating the question, thinking about it. He didn't have any plans with Dart or Charles during lunch so why not? "Sure, I'd love to." He nodded pleasantly.

"Great!" She nodded her head keeping her eyes shut. She was going to have him by herself, just the two of them alone!

* * *

 **\- School Rooftop –**

The bell struck lunch as Ichika and Houki sat on the grass portion of the school building rooftop in agreement to have lunch together, just the two of them. But due to a change of plans, Houki's pleasant lunch turned around into a displeasing one. She looked forward to have lunch with her childhood friend, _but no_. Ichika had to ask his other childhood friend, Ling, to come along with the third male student so they could enjoy it as a group. Charles was understandable since he hasn't made and friends in the school yet other than Ichika and Dart.

 _'_ _I guess this planned lunch could've been worse if Alcott wasn't aiming for Dart,'_ Houki thought with a bit of relief, still giving Ichika a death glare.

Ichika felt a death-like vibe coming from Houki. He stuttered as the glare sent a cold shiver down his spine.

"I know I promised that we'd have lunch together with just the two of us, Houki. But Charles and Ling haven't been at this school for no more than a week, so until they know more friends I want to be there for them." Ichika explained giving Houki a serious expression, to the sudden flatter of Charles and Ling.

"Yeah, that's true…but," Houki replied with a softer tone, hiding a bento she made for him wrapped in a pink sheet behind her knelt down body. She was giving a hesitant and embarrassed look. She was the shy type when expressing her feelings with other people around, so she hoped to be herself when she was alone with him.

Ling wasn't so hesitant to show her bento she made for Ichika. She held it between her crossed legs, keeping her eyes on the embarrassed Houki.

"Was it really okay for me to join you three?' Charles asked humbly. He didn't want to feel he was imposing on a group of friends Charles is not yet familiar with.

Ichika giggled for a brief moment, "You're so modest, Charles." He ceased his giggling and gave him a comforting smile, "We're going to be roommates from today forth, so we boys should be sticking together, right?"

"Thank you. You're so kind, Ichika." Charles thanked making Ichika blush a tad. "Oh, speaking of boys. If you say we should stick together, where is Dart?"

"He's having lunch with Cecilia down in the refectory."

Ling coughed clearly and loudly once to divert the conversation away between Ichika and Charles to Ichika and Ling. "Ichika, would you like to have some sweet and sour pork? I made it this morning." Ling unwrapped her bento and took off the lid of the box to a mine of delicious and savory lunch.

"Ooh!" Ichika widened his mouth and eyes astonished. The inside of his mouth began to drool just from the name alone of this tremendous delight.

"Umm, Ichika," Houki said softly wanting to get Ichika's attention. The boy looked from the sweet and sour pork bento to Houki holding on her lap a dark red box. "How would you like to try mine first?" She boldly asked. This did not make Ling happy at all. Houki took the top off the dark red bento box and unveiled a box that was separated in the middle, separating the rice and the variants of meat and vegetables.

Not only did it make Ichika's stomach growl to take it, but it was also representable.

"That's great! It seems like you spend a lot of time making each of them."

Houki turned her head away slightly and closed her eyes acting like a tsundere as usual. "I only made it for you because I was already making it for myself.

"I know, but still this is nice. Thank you, Houki." In his hands Ichika satisfyingly moved his chopsticks over to Houki's bento. Houki smiled and humphed boastfully, acknowledging Ichika was far more interested in trying her cooking than Ling's sweet and sour pork. Ichika picked up a fried chicken with his chopsticks and retreated back to where he sat since he had to lean across to get something from her bento. He held the piece of meat in front of him still clamped by the sticks as he looked at it with readiness. "Well then, thank you for the food." Ichika cobbled the fried chicken into his mouth and began to chew on it, savoring the indescribable taste.

Houki stared nervously and focuses at Ichika's mouth movements, as if her food was being judged.

"This is good!" Ichika exclaimed happily after swallowing the piece. "I bet you had to do a lot to make it."

Houki was the mist joyful she could be being praised by Ichika. She closed her eyes cheerfully and faint red cheeks appeared, "I used some ginger, soy sauce and grated garlic to season. Actually, I added some pepper at the beginning too." She kept on rambling as Ichika took another fried chicken from the bento.

"Aren't you going to eat it, Houki?"

"I already ate the ones that didn't turn out well." Ichika swallowed the meat and looked speechless at Houki, taking her aback. When she saw his concerned face she raised her hands up to her head. "Oh, I mean I'm fine," she accidentally let her tongue slip. "Well, I'm glad you like it."

 _'_ _What a bad comeback, Houki.'_ This made Ichika feel slightly sorry for her. If she put too much effort to make this great bento then she deserves to eat it as well and Ichika wasn't going to leave the rooftop until Houki gets to taste the good parts of her own bento.

Ichika leaned over to Houki once more and picked up the last ball of dark gold meat and raised it to her mouth. "Here!"

"Ahh!" Ling squealed knowing what Ichika was planning on doing.

"Wh…what?" Houki flustered with a cute look on her face staring up from the ball of meat to Ichika's firm face.

"Come on, eat it."

Houki's blush reddened as she looked back to the meat before her eyes being handed to her by Ichika! "O… Okay, then…" she opened her mouth a little not to seem ill-mannered and chomped the fried chicken on the chopsticks. She brought her mouth back and proceeded to savor this moment and taste. When she was done, it was very pleasant to taste the better part of her cooking.

"It's… It's good."

"HEY! Stop being so lovey dovey and try my sweet and sour pork already!" Ling yelled losing her impatience.

"Okay, okay."

* * *

 **\- Room 1052 –**

"Wow, by the time lunch was over I thought I would have lost my ability to speak," Dart said relieved entering his room with Cecilia closing the door behind them at dusk.

"By the way, what was that about, Dart?" Cecilia asked frowning by the door. Like Houki, she hoped to have another one-on-one with Dart during lunch, but randomly a large group of girls from different grades and classes marched up to him and firing comments and questions at him.

"Well, I sort of dug myself into that situation," Dart commented walking to the foot of his bed which was closest to the bathroom and sat on it as his ass was being absorbed into the mattress. He stretched his arms out as far as he could and twisted his body making bone-cracking noise.

"Well?" Cecilia stood in front of Dart placing her hands on her hips irritably.

"It's sort of a long story, but I'll try to make it short as I can. I encountered a few groups of girls that ambushed me on my way to the locker room prior to practice today and I sort of invited them to talk to me during lunch to let me through. Just like Ichika and Charles, I could have run past the girls but I made a promise as a man to help the girls talk to boys since they haven't had that chance to talk to any in earlier schools."

"That's…very nice of you to do, Dart," Cecilia was speechless at Dart' selfless action. If the girls didn't have any boys to talk to in the IS Academy, their chances of finding love in the future would plummet. "Who did you make a promise to?"

"Katane Mira, during our one-time date."

"D-d-d-d-d-date?!"

"For your information, I wasn't the one to ask for it." Dart began to explain his story. "In return for her teaching me how to pilot an Uchigane in four days before we dueled in the Class Rep match, she wanted a date in return. She kept her side of the deal and trained me, and I kept mine by dating as students, not girlfriend/boyfriend."

"What a relief," Cecilia muttered after a soft sigh. She thought she would actually lose her chance to make him hers. Unfortunately for her, Dart head her little mutter and squinted his eyes. He couldn't shake this feeling that Cecilia actually fell for Dart sometime after their match and was dead-set on making him her fiancé.

It was only fair to give her a chance, even after her traumatized past with her father being a bad role-model. But, he wasn't going to be some possession already claimed by someone. There was only one way to find out if the friendship would advance to the next level, or stay where it is.

"Listen, Cecilia." He began in a serious tone and getting her full attention, ceasing to show her relaxed composure. "If you're determined to make me your boyfriend, I'll allow you a chance."

"You will?" Cecilia widened her eyes surprisingly

"If you're not busy this weekend, how about we hang out together? See a movie or go shopping" This brightened Cecilia's mood hugely being asked on a date. "If all goes well and we find a connection between us, I'll be happy to date you more. But you do know if we can't, right?"

Cecilia held her clenched fists up by her body looking more confident, "I do, and I won't allow us to lose that connection! On my name as Cecilia Alcott, we shall be future husband and wife!"

Dart shed a sweat drop, _'Don't go thinking too far ahead… We haven't had this date yet and you speak of us already being boyfriend/girlfriend.'_


	8. Chapter 8

**To be honest I didn't think this crossover would get more than 60 follows/favorites. Thank you all so much for the support!**

* * *

 **Chapter VIII**

 **Another Transfer Student?**

 **\- IS Academy, Room 1025, Night –**

Ichika and his new male roommate, the French transfer student Charles sat at the desk in front of their beds enjoying their talk, company and a green tea that was steaming out of the cups. They had the chairs positioned sideways so they could face each other while they sat.

"Ha~h," Ichika exhaled with relaxation sitting with one band on the back of his chair. "Having guy time is important. It's the only time I can be myself."

Charles finished a sip of his warm tea and placed it down on the desk, "This tea is very different from black tea. It almost tastes strange. But it's good nonetheless." After Charles finished his comment Ichika picked up his cup of steaming tea and took a drink in a manner which seemed like he was drinking a can of fizzy drink. "I heard you always practice IS piloting after school. Is that true?"

Ichika removed the tea from his mouth, "Yeah, since I'm behind everyone else. Dart also trains after school in his personal IS, but he does his training with Cecilia in a different arena."

"I see. Can I join you, Ichika?" Charles asked happily, "I have a personal unit, so I think I can be of help to you."

"Yeah, please."

"Sure, count on me." Charles smiled as he nodded once enthusiastically.

* * *

 **\- Class 1-1, Next Day –**

The next morning inside of Class 1-1, the female students had their mouths open a little from the sight they had before them. It was in the form of another transfer student, but female this time. The students couldn't believe they were getting transfers in a small amount of days. First it was Dart some time ago, then Charles yesterday and now this student from Germany.

This short student has long silver hair reaching her thighs and she looked like the kind of student not to pester with her scary, emotionless face and black eye patch covering her left eye. She had her eyes closed at the moment which made her more unapproachable.

Miss Yamada felt the same way as her students. She was also filled with shock introducing a new student, despite getting one just yesterday. "S-So, we have more happy news today. We have another transfer student joining us." A holographic board appeared on the black board introducing this girl as Laura Bodewig. "She's a transfer student from Germany, Laura Bodewig." The female students began to comment softly.

"What's going on?"

"Transfer students two days in a row?"

"Isn't it strange?"

"S-Settle down, everyone," Miss Yamada tried to get some order within the class. "The introduction isn't over yet."

Chifuyu who stood at the front right of the class with her arms folded, gazed to Laura unimpressed. "Introduce yourself, Laura."

Laura broke her silence and opened her dark red eye, momentarily staring to Chifuyu. "Yes, Instructor."

' _Instructor?'_ Ichika thought to himself bewilderingly, ' _So she's from the time Chifuyu was in Germany.'_

Laura looked back to the class and stood at attention, tapping her heels together giving out a clue she's from military. "I'm Laura Bodewig."

A few seconds of silence passed.

"Is…that all?"

"That is all." She turned her gaze from the class to one student in particular – Ichika. Her hate was growing from staring at him. "You," she said loathingly keeping her stoic face. She walked off the step and approached Ichika's desk.

 _Slap_

The class fell silent with one sudden action. Laura backhanded Ichika across his right cheek, leaving a red slap mark. The entire class was speechless witnessing assault. But one boy became enraged, provoking him to forcefully stand up from his seat and sent his chair back loudly. He remembered the first day he was trapped in this world, where that bitch bullied a male for no reason.

"Dart?" Cecilia softly asked with worry quickly looking up to her enraged friend.

"Calm down, Silver!" Chifuyu yelled ordering Dart to stand down.

"Are you seriously going to let this woman get away with an assault crime?!" Dart shot back fumingly. "She just hit someone for no reason and yet you're going to allow it?!"

"I said calm down! I'll deal with her later!" Chifuyu stood her ground against the enraged student. Dart groaned, bearing his white teeth and sat back down, but not without telling her he's still not happy about it by sitting down loudly.

"I will not approve of you. I will never recognize you as her younger sister," Laura spat with all her denial she had at Ichika, ignoring the drama caused by Dart.

* * *

 **\- 1st Period, Arena 3 -**

After the tension caused in the homeroom class cooled down following Laura's unexplained strike upon Ichika, everyone from class 1-1 and 1-2 was in Arena 3 having an unsupervised IS practical lesson. Students who didn't own a personal IS stood in two lines facing each other. They were practicing sword strikes like the samurai used to do while taking one step back and forth. To synch their timing they shouted "one, two" over again.

While the non-personal students had the ideal training regimen, the ones who had a personal IS had it otherwise.

"You go slash, and then whack, smack from the side!" Houki made sound effects whilst she punched her arms through the air, giving Ichika who was in his personal IS some tips to fighting.

"Don't you get the gist of it? Feel it. Huh?! Why don't you, you moron?!" Ling wasn't the best IS teacher. Like Houki she was speaking nonsense.

"I'll be frank…" Ichika said softly ready to spill the truth. "I don't understand anything you two are saying!" He flailed his arms making his point. The advice they were giving him was totally incomprehensible. It was like little kids trying to explain rocket science to an adult.

"Why don't you?"

"Pay attention!"

Houki and Ling complained.

"Heh, I feel sorry for Ichika." Dart eavesdropped on their little boggle on advice.

He and Cecilia stood near the centre, far away from Ichika and the rest as Dart was undergoing shooting training supervised by the sniper IS user, Cecilia. On the opposite side of the field where everyone was, was a shooting range. Spread apart on different levels of height was target markers with small hexagonal pieces. Spot on the middle was a blue hexagon worth 100 points, the six green hexagons around the centre was worth 75 points, 12 yellow hexagons around them were worth 50 points and two red hexagons on both sides was 25 points.

Doing this target practice killed two birds with one stone. Dart could better his accuracy of his aim and vent out his anger on Laura by imagining he was shooting her IS.

Dart and Cecilia were both in their respective IS. The Build Banshee was armed with its beam magnum and the Blue Tears was left unarmed because it wasn't needed. Since the beam magnum would be held with one hand, Dart held it like so.

"I think you'll have better aim if you held your rifle with two hands instead of one," Cecilia recommended.

"I'd like to get used to firing a gun with one hand. After all I need to focus on the aim of my VN ( **V** ibration **N** ails)." Dart replied back taking his aim at the target straight at the centre of the targets and in front of him. His arm was wobbly. Maybe using two hands would be easier, but he needed one-handed aim practice. The beam magnum hummed up for a second, creating a ball of plasma by the barrel.

 ** _Pew_**

Dart shot a plasma bolt at the target. It hit one of the 50 points, shattering it like glass upon impact.

"Nice shot!' She complimented before asking something. "So um, would you like to tell me what happened this morning?" Cecilia asked with caution unaware if Dart was still upset about this morning when Laura slapped Ichika. If it was a problem then talking it out was the best way to cure it.

Dart lowered his beam magnum and looked at Cecilia on his right. "I'll tell you later on tonight when we're in our rooms."

"Look, look. Orimura and Dunois are going to have a match," a female classmate said behind Dart and Cecilia grabbing their attention.

The two other boys were staring off at each other like a standoff. Both were in their respective IS. Ichika in his Byakushiki and Charles in his custom third generation Raphael Revive. Charles's IS was similar to the design of the IS Maya Yamada used to wreck Cecilia and Ling, but his was orange and used a sniper rifle and dual submachine guns over a grenade launcher.

"Dunois's unit is a Raphael Revive, right?"

"France's second generation IS!"

"Are you ready, Ichika?" Dunois asked his sparring partner with a look on his face.

"I guess we can sit back and watch this spar," Dart spoke taking his attention away from the target practice and observed this fight closely in case he was going to enter a fight against Charles in the near future. He already knew Ichika's preferred fighting style so it was good to know Charles's one too.

"I guess…" Cecilia muttered in agreement.

Ichika got into a fighting stance, wielding his sword in front of him like a samurai. "Sure," he replied eager to rest out Charles's IS. He made the first move by charging towards the incoming IS. Charles blocked the sword strike with a shield. Still with his orange shield raised, he tried to lunge a drill-like weapon in his right hand which was known as a Shield Penetrator. Ichika blocked the strike and sliced forward, missing its target as Charles took to the skies.

He began to pursue.

Turning around and equipping a green submachine gun, Charles began to spray bullets downwards to Ichika who raised his left arm up and projected a shield. Ichika tried to close the gap; however Charles kept his distance and moved around in a circle.

It began to look like it was some sort of dance routine instead of a fight.

After spinning around in circles facing each other, Ichika charged forward and slashed down, but Charles was quick on the reaction and flew over Ichika to evade the strike. Now behind the sword wielder, he changed weapons to a sniper rifle and took aim while he was upside down. Ichika turned around and raised his shields again.

 ** _Pew_**

Charles shot once at Ichika, flipping the right side up and continuing the suppressing fire with shot after shot. Ichika charged forwards with his shield raised, being knocked back slightly for each shot. As he closed in on the gap, his energy shields were rapidly decreasing to zero.

* * *

"You lost simply because you don't understand characteristics of long-range weapons." Charles tutored while the two boys stood on the launch bay after the spar.

"I think I do, but…" Ichika folded his arms and looked down deep in thought.

"Your Byakushiki doesn't have an equalizer, right?"

"No. Apparently the bus-slots are all taken."

"I'm guessing that's because they're allocating more power to your One-off ability."

"One-off?"

"It's a natural ability that manifests when the pilot and IS are in optical sync. Perhaps the Reiryaku Byakya would be the Byakushiki's.

"I get it. You're explanation is much easier," Ichika complimented. Little did he know Houki and Ling crept up on the two boys getting along while they hid from sight on the launch bay.

"Humph, and you don't listen to my advice, eh?"

"I lectured you so clearly, too."

Houki and Ling further complained and blamed Ichika for not listening to their advice when clearly it wasn't advice.

"But Reiryaku Byakuya is an insane attack that even uses shield energy for offence," Ichika added bringing up an image on his IS HUD during the Class Representative match.

Charles brought his fist to his chin in thought, "The same ability your sister used, right?" He looked at Ichika dropping his thinking posture, "Just because you're siblings doesn't mean you can use the same attack effortlessly. What if you tried long-range weapons and save yourself the energy shield drain of Reiryaku Byakuya"

"I'll give it a try."

The two then made it back down to the arena floor to the middle of the arena where they stood to the right of Dart and Cecilia who went back to range practice.

A new shooting target appeared in front of Ichika and Charles. The French lad handed his sniper rifle over to Ichika so he could lend it.

"Let's practice a little."

"I thought I couldn't use other people's equipment."

"Usually. But when the owner disables the protection, every registered person can use it."

"Really?" Ichika accepted the borrowed sniper rifle and took a concentrated aim at the appeared target, having the blue hexagon square in his sights though the scope. With some help he had Charles behind him holding his arms to steady his aim. "Is this the right stance?"

"Let's see…" Charles moved Ichika's arms up a bit to get a better shot. "Tighten your arm. Move your left arm here. Understand?"

"Okay," Ichika closed his left eye and looked through the scope.

The way how the two boys looked close up like a pair of lovers, it started to bug the Hell out of Ling and Houki.

"Hey, aren't those two getting along too well?" Ling moaned with her fists on her waists. She was so uncomfortable at this sight she almost her had fists dig into her skin.

 ** _Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew_**

Ichika shot five targets getting two 75s and three 50s, getting a score of 300.

"Ooh," Ichika was amazed at himself and how the sniper rifle fired. He held the rifle upwards as Charles released his helping grip on his arms.

"How as it?"

"Well, how should I put it… I guess, fast."

Suddenly, an unwanted appearance showed itself. It was a black IS that stood on the launch bay closest to Ichika and Charles.

"Hey, look over there." One of the girls pointed out. Everyone turned their attention to what the girl was talking about. To the hatred of Dart, it was Laura's personal IS. The easy to spot feature of it was the massive black cannon stored on the right shoulder, like the Tallgeese series has.

"No way! It's Germany's third generation model."

"I heard it was still undergoing trials there."

"Laura Bodewig," Dart hissed with a frown.

"What? So that's her? Germany's national representative candidate who slapped Ichika?" Ling turned her uncomfortable feelings to hatred just like Dart.

"Orimura Ichika," Laura said without emotion staring down at him from above.

"What?" The called boy asked returning the sniper to Charles, keeping his eyes on the German girl.

"I heard you possessed a personal unit, as well. I will get to my point. Fight against me," she declared stoically.

"No, I don't have a reason to." He replied.

"You may not, but I do."

"It doesn't have to be this moment, does it? The Class League Match's coming up soon. Can't we wait until then?"

"Then," she brought up her right shoulder cannon, extending the barrel and aimed at Ichika. It heated up and shot a shell. Dart was about to move to defense, however Charles was closer to Ichika and armed his shield moving in front of Ichika. The shell rebounded from the shield and into the sky like a flare.

The steel shell dropped from the launch bay and to the ground, bouncing twice before rolling briefly.

"Charles!" Ichika said gratefully.

"Throwing a gauntlet like that… Looks like Germans have short tempers." Charles was prepared to throw down equipping a sniper in one hand and a submachine gun in the other.

"A second generation model made in France dares to stand before me?" Laura mocked.

"Yeah, since it's more likely to work than a German third generation model who knows when will be fit for mass production."

Laura did not like that smart comment at all, frowning even more.

[You guys! What are you doing?!] A female over the voice comms interfered with the intense moment.

Obeying the warning, Laura stood down. "I shall stand down today." She deactivated her IS and landed on the ground from the height. And then she took a walk away, leaving everyone wondering what beef she has with Ichika.

* * *

 **\- After School -**

Ichika walked alone back to his dorm with the sun setting over the sea behind him after Charles went back ahead of him. He carried his bag over his right shoulder as he recalled what occurred this morning.

He was backhanded by Laura and she said something that got him wondering what on earth she meant. _"I will not approve you. I will never recognize you as her younger brother."_

He placed his left hand over his right check where the slap hit. What did he do to her in the past to make her this hostile to him? They never met before so the answer to this mystery doesn't make sense.

He walked further until he heard said girl talking by the pond, "Answer me, Instructor! What are you doing in a place like this?!" Ichika dropped his hand and turned to the direction Laura was talking in. But he heard another voice.

It was his older sister.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

When Ichika spotted Chifuyu was talking with Laura, he was taking a risk in eavesdropping on them and hiding behind the tree in the shade. Chifuyu would probably kill him for being nosey, but if this conversation led to why Laura hates him so then it'll be worth it.

"I have duties to fulfill. That is all."

"What duty do you have on this Far East Island? Please, Instructor. Please instruct us in Germany again! Not even half of your potential is put to good use here!"

"Oh?"

"Besides, students at this school are not worthy of your instruction! They have no sense of danger and think of IS as fashion statements or something. As for you to devote your time to people like that…"

"Leave it at that, little runt…" No matter how begging Laura was for Chifuyu to go back to Germany, she wouldn't listen to her cries. Laura was taken aback being called a runt. "You've become an important person in the short time I haven't seen you, eh? Do you think you're some sort of "chosen one" as the age o fifteen?"

"I-I'm…" Laura retorted placing her hand heavily on her chest.

"Go back to the dorm. I'm busy."

"Tsk," Laura looked distraught like her heart had been broken. Without a word she ran off, upset and shedding no tears. She was gone and out of sight. But Chifuyu wasn't done yet.

"Boy!" She yelled talking about the shocked Ichika. "Eavesdropping, are you? I don't appreciate strange fetishes like that." Welp, Ichika was in deep shit now.

"Wh-What are you thinking, Chifuyu?!" Ichika came out of hiding behind the tree and walked into the open.

"Call me Miss Orimura at school you twit."

"S-Sorry," he surrendered in response.

She glared at her younger brother, sternly "If you have some time to waste, then get some practice in. At this rate, you'll end lose your first match in the tournament at the end of the month."

"I know."

"Okay then," Chifuyu began to walk away but was stopped three steps after by her brother who asked her to wait. He wanted to get some answers about this morning and what she meant by disapproving being her brother.

"Earlier, what Laura was saying... She said she wouldn't approve of me being your brother. Is it because of how you missed becoming champion for a second time because of me?"

"It's in the past. You don't have to dwell on it. See you," Chifuyu bid goodbye walking away from an idle Ichika and towards the dorm area.

Years ago during the second Mondo Grosso, the IS World Championship, Ichika was kidnapped by strange people for no reason. He was tied up in an unknown location until Chifuyu came to rescue him, at the cost of forfeiting the finals and missed becoming a consecutive champion in two Mondo Grossos in a row. As repayment for the German military's help in tipping of his location, she had to become an instructor to the German Army IS Force for a little over a year.

Ichika was burdened heavily by this event. If he weren't so weak back then, Chifuyu could have been a two-time champion and it was his fault.

* * *

 **\- Room 1025 –**

"I'm back," Ichika entered through the door to his room as he heard the shower running. So that meant Charles was back. Ichika walked over to the desk and placed his bag on it and then walked backwards to the foot of his bed. He sat down on his bed and sighed, letting his body relax placing his hands on the bed sheet.

"Oh yeah," Ichika just remembered something. He walked over to the cupboard with towels inside of it. He reached for a pink shampoo bottle with a pump lid. He then knocked twice on the door loudly to make sure Charles heard it and entered through. "Charles, the body soap's out right. Here's a place-"

The water stopped and the glass sliding door opened to reveal a speechless sight. Charles was in his…actually _her_ birthday suit. Her breasts and private area was in full view. Charles instantly noticed her current wear and turned to her side instantly with a short jump ad squeal, covering her breasts and privates and her cheeks with an embarrassed blush.

Like a zombie he slowly placed the bottle of shampoo on the bathroom bench. "Here's the shampoo," he said traumatized.

"Yeah…thanks…"

Ichika turned around and automatically walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He was so speechless and frozen that he couldn't move his eyes or head at all, just walk automatically.

"Charles…is…a girl…"

* * *

 **\- Cafeteria -**

Dart and Cecilia sat alone in one of the corner stalls of the cafeteria enjoying their dinner. They were digging into Western food, a butter chicken tikka masala for Dart and bangers and mash (mash potatoes and sausage) for Cecilia.

Cecilia swallowed a cut up piece of sausage and ceased eating temporarily. Since they were in private, or with fewer people around she could get the answer to why Dart was so enraged this morning.

"Excuse me, Dart. Are you okay to talk about this morning?"

Dart chewed the spoonful of rice and butter curry he had in his mouth while he stared at Cecilia with his eyes. He swallowed his food and placed his spoon on his plate, giving Cecilia his full attention.

"I am. It's no secret about this world's society that females dominate over men with an iron fist." He began with a serious tone. "Females harass men and everyone bats an eye, ignoring that the equality scale has been thrown out of the window. I just snapped when that bitch slapped an innocent man for no reason and wasn't punished on the spot. You see…before I came to the IS Academy I was wondering in the streets of this city when I saw a woman harassing an innocent man because she claimed he got in her way. I was pissed off because the male bystanders didn't help and the most of the females just smirked, like they enjoyed the sight. When she walked off I caught up to her and stood up to her. That's when she used her IS to beat me up for standing up to her, I activated my IS and she fled."

"Dart…" She became concerned hearing all that. "Were you hurt badly by that witch?!" She was now feeling defensive with her look of disapprovement. If she saw this woman who hurt Dart she would likely tear her apart.

"Only suffered a broken nose and a few bruises on my stomach. They're both healed though." He went back to eating his butter chicken peacefully.

"She better stay out of our way on our date this weekend, or else she'll feel the wrath of Cecilia Alcott for hurting my darling!" She said to herself filled with the promise of vengeance.

"Let it go, Cecilia," Dart continued to chew his food with his eyes closed. "What's done is done and she's not a problem anymore. It's Laura. She has the guts to transfer into our class and think she can pick a fight with Ichika, someone she just met. I'll have to pay her back for Ichika if I fight against her in the upcoming tournament."

* * *

 **\- Room 1025 -**

"…"

"…"

Ichika and Charles kept silent from the awkwardness filling the room. Ichika sat at the foot of his bed again with Charles who was out of the shower and now dressed in a jogging suit on her bed, drying her wet hair with a towel. Neither one felt comfortable at the moment to speak to each other.

A minute of silence continued until Ichika was the first one to speak.

"So…do you want to tell me why you dressed up as a guy?"

"Yeah," Charles replied softly feeling some uncomfortable emotions. "You see….it was the Dunois Company President's idea… That man gave me the order directly."

"Order?" Ichika looked to his left, "He's your father, isn't he? Then why-"

"Ichika…I'm…a bastard child." She informed sadly. Ichika widened his eyes paying more attention to her. "Two years ago, my mother passed away, and it was the first time I heard of my father. When I was tested, I had a very high aptitude for piloting an IS. So I became the informant test pilot for Dunois Company. Come to think of it, I've only met my father twice… The first when they called me from my home…it's a bitter memory. I was confronted by his wife. And called the "daughter" of a "thieving bitch…" It hurt pretty bad…" She tried to giggle if off but it was easy to tell she was hurt on the inside like a heart-breaking memory. "Although my mother told me well about such events I was still at a loss at the time. Sometime later…the Dunois Company went through a management crisis."

"Eh?" Ichika stood up and walked around to the left side of his bed so he faced Charles straight on. "But isn't Dunois like, number 3 when it comes to mass-produced IS?"

"Not really. After all, the Revive is still a second-generation unit. And IS development costs a lot of money… In our case, the revival cost us almost of our government's funding." Charles also moved from the foot of her bed to the right side and faced Ichika, hanging her towel around her neck once her hair was dry. "Currently, the European Union is executing a unified strategic defense plan. They're currently in the middle of selecting the next main force for this "Ignition plan". Hard-liners who want third-gen units to be the main force want France to be removed from the plan altogether. In other words, France either had to come out with a third-gen unit immediately or quit altogether. So the Dunois Company set out to develop a third-gen unit. But since we were the last ones to enter the second-gen market, we lacked data and time."

"All this info is hard to take in, but…what's all this got to do with you dressing as a male?" Ichika wondered placing his finger on his chin.

"It's simple. It was all a ruse. As a male student it would be easier to approach Orimura Ichika and much easier to sample data from him…was the plan."

Ichika widened his eyes, "That's…!"

"Yes. I was instructed to steal data from your Byakushiki…by that man, my father."

So the reason why she came here was now in full light. Charles was ordered to come to the academy and attempt to steal Ichika's IS data so France could begin to develop third-gen units.

"Ah, well, that's my story…" she finished with some relief and she looked somewhat happy to get it off her chest. "I'm sorry for tricking you and Dart all this time. Talking to you has cheered me up a bit. The company will go bankrupt no doubt, and I will probably be deported back to France. Ah, well."

"Are you alright with it?" Ichika inquired seriously giving her a stern look. "Are you really okay with that?"

Charles sighed and pointed her head down to the floor closing her eyes. Since her jig is up, no matter what happens now she won't care about. "I…don't really care. I didn't choose this and I don't care. So whatever."

"Don't you give me that "whatever" crap to me and this bastard calls himself your "father"!" Ichika stood up with exclamation. Charles looked up with alert staring into his eyes. "Even if it's true that he's the reason you're here, it doesn't mean he can do just whatever he wants with you like a damn pawn! Everyone should live the life they want to and no one, not even your parents has any right to deny you that!"

"Ichika…why are you…?" She felt comforted and heartfelt. Ichika's probably the only person in the world except her mother who genuinely cares about her.

"Chifuyu and I were disowned by our parents. My older sister is my only family now. That's why if my father came to me with the same kind of command, I would never be able to forgive him."

"…Yeah, that's right. You're right, Ichika. But…I'm really…"

"Article of 21 of the academy's charter states that each and every student must belong to no state entity as long as they're enrolled here. If the student does not agree to it, then no external intervention shall be permitted. You'll have three years to find a solution to your problems. In other words, it's fine if you stay here for now. Charles, I'm here for you."

Charles found an incoming blush on her speechless face, "Ichika…" She smiled gleefully and felt much safer and cared for. "Thank you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter IX**

 **The Tag Team Tournament**

 **\- Room 1052 –**

It was another blissful night of sleep for Cecilia in the embrace of the male she has affection for. Dart slept on his back while he had his left arm going underneath her neck and resting his hand on her upper back. Cecilia slept on her side with her arms wrapped around Dart's neck while she rested her head on his left shoulder.

"Mmmmmmm," Dart began to wake up with a moan stretching his legs and right arm upwards. For some reason he couldn't feel his left arm at all, and his neck was sore all around. He fully opened his eyes and gazed his attention to the female on his left. Cecilia peacefully slept. "Of course it would be her…" he muttered in bother. He quickly changed his expression to one of serenity. "But dang she's cute when she's sleeping. If being her boyfriend will give me this sight to wake up to every morning, I just might fall for her like she has to me."

"You say something, Dart?" Cecilia asked tiringly, waking up from her good night's sleep. Dart jumped to her sudden wake.

"No, no," he denied repetitively.

Cecilia unwrapped her arms from around his neck giving him some reprieve and lied up, looking down at him with half-awake eyes. Her light blue knighting gown was a bit of a mess with the left strap around her arm instead of over her shoulders. "You did say something." Her ears didn't lie. She did hear him mutter something.

"It's nothing," he continued to deny what he said.

She fully opened her eyes and gave a little pout. "What did you say?" Her voice was starting to become one of a interrogator. She moved her left hand and gave it a pinch, attempting to use a playful torture technique.

"Ha, fools on you. That arm is numb from your heavy head," he pulled out his tongue cheekily. But that was his undoing. Cecilia quickly seized the opportunity to move her pinch from his numb arm to his tongue clamping down on it and hard. "Ah! Thweese lul go. (Please let go)."

"Not until you repeat what you said, darling," she pressured. In a short second Dart caved in. His tongue was hurting and it felt uncomfortable having the tongue out in the air, drying quickly like the drought.

"Hohay (okay)," Cecilia released her clamp on his tongue as it quickly withdrew back into his mouth as if it was a snail retreating back into its shell. He rolled the tongue around to wear off the pain. "I said you looked cute while you slept is all.

"Ahh, thank you!" Cecilia was overcome with joy and flatter showing a blush on her face. She turned around so she sat on the side of the bed and stood up to go to the restroom.

"I'm starting to regret saying being your boyfriend would be good," he muttered even more silently to make sure his words didn't reach her ears this time. Using his right arm he pulled himself up and rested his lower back on the pillow and his back against the back bed frame. His left arm was stull numb from her head being on his shoulder all night long, but he started to feel it come back to him. He was going to wait until his arm came back to him before he would move out of bed.

"Oh Dart," Cecilia said walking back into the room and when she looked at Dart, she saw his exposed chest and looked embarrassed.

"Why are you still looking embarrassed when you see my chest? You've been sleeping next to it, even touched it for a few nights now." Dart pointed out tilting his head and arching an eyebrow.

"Ah, sorry. I'm not used to seeing men…you know half naked," she explained going back into the bathroom. "I thought you and I could do more training at lunch before the tournament tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Cecilia. I'm going to be with Ichika and Charles for lunch. But I'll join you afterwards, okay?"

"I…understand that you need boy time with Charles and Ichika," Cecilia agreed but she sounded a bit saddened. Her blue mood was hard to detect, but it was there in her tone.

Dart felt his hand come completely back to him, but he decided to wait further in bed until Cecilia was done in the bathroom. "I'll make up the lost time, don't worry." He promised to treat Cecilia for their time apart today. Maybe asking Charles and Ichika at lunch what they think would be good to cheer a girl up.

* * *

 **\- Lunch, Arena 3 –**

It hit lunch and Cecilia was in Arena 3 about to prepare for some practice, but someone else was in the same arena. It was Ling who was in her pink IS leotard standing in the centre of the arena.

"I'll do this by myself"… Could it be that you heard the rumors…she said to the Englishwoman towards her, showing some dislike for her being here.

"Speak for yourself, Ling. What might be the reason for your private, personal self-training?" Cecilia countered.

"It seems like we're both aiming to be the best!" Ling assumed accurately. "Would you like to settle this issue before the tournament starts?" Ling and Cecilia needed to resolve their differences a few days ago when their failure to work as a team against Maya Yamada scored them a humiliating loss.

"My, my…what an interesting thought," Cecilia folded her arms getting interested. "Then, shall we find out who's the stronger one right here, right now."

Both females equipped their respective IS suits and were ready to brawl it out. However, before they could actually get to the duel they were interrupted by a blast from a shell that was fired between them, causing them to move back from each other. They turned their attention to the one who fired it.

"Wh-What was that for?!"

"Who dares?! Why would you suddenly attack us…"

Ling and Cecilia expressed their displeasure looking more closely at who fired it. Emitting smoke from the right shoulder cannon, was the same girl who tried to pick a fight with Ichika yesterday.

Laura Bodewig.

"Germany's Schwarz Regen…Laura Bodewig," Cecilia hissed.

"To lose to a mass-production model and you call yourselves Cadet Representatives…" Laura began with the intent to taunt the two girls before her. "I see nothing but incompetence from you two. It seems that it was only in the past that your countries had either merit or skill."

Her taunt wasn't welcome, but it was working in irritating the two girls.

"What?" Ling was pissed. "Did you come all the way from Germany just to get scrapped? Cecilia, let's flip a coin to see who goes first!"

"I don't mind either way."

"How about you two at once," Laura mocked gesturing her left hand with the "bring it" sign. "You can come at me as two bitch horses melting over two thorough-breds, but you'll still lose."

That struck a nerve. Cecilia and Ling snapped and began to charge towards this silver-haired bitch that's going to get it.

* * *

 **\- Hallway -**

"Hey Charles, Ichika," Dart said walking along his two male comrades of the school. "Cecilia asked me to go to IS training with her during lunch, but I turned her down. So I'd like to know what you two think would be a good way to make it up for her?"

"Uhh, let's see," Ichika rubbed the back of his head in thought. "Why don't you ask her on a date?"

"We're going this weekend on one, so a date is out of the question."

"Maybe you could perhaps spend some special time with her to make up for what was lost?" Charles suggested peeking her head forward as she walked to look at Dart on the right of the walking trio.

"Like what, Charles? We have dinner together and we sleep in the same room."

"You know, eh-"

Charles was stopped when a conversation between two girls got their attention. The three boys stopped to overhear.

"Hey, did you hear? There's three Cadet Reps duking it out right now in Arena 3!"

"Cadet Reps? Wonder who?" Ichika pondered.

"Let's take a look," Charles recommended.

"Three Class Reps? Two of them must be Cecilia and Ling, but who could be the third one?" Dart had a bad feeling about the third one in that brawl and he hoped it wasn't _that_ girl."

* * *

 **\- Arena 3 –**

The male trio rushed it to Arena 3 where they encountered Houki who had been watching the entire fight from the start from the safety of the stands. She heard their six footsteps behind her and looked behind.

"Ichika, why are you-?"

Ichika, Charles and Dart saw who was fighting from the stands and they became shrouded in horror. Dart's prediction was right. Two of the females were indeed Ling and Cecilia, but the third one was Laura. The fight so far had been a one-sided beating, nay, a one-sided brutal torture.

By Laura's IS suit's feet was Cecilia being strangled by some sort of wire and in the right hand, she held Ling by the throat. It was lucky that the shields saved them from severe harm.

"Cecilia! Ling!" Ichika yelled. "Just what are they doing?"

"From what I heard… It seems that this was from being taunted by Laura." Houki filled in on the details.

"Two on one? But it seems that…"

"That is…it seems to have a barrier that is stopping both Impact Cannons and live shot shots. And when it's her turn, Laura moves at an alarming rate. And it greatly restricts the two's movements."

"AIC…" Charles muttered knowing the technology that's making them have the disadvantage. AIC stood for Active Inertia Canceller, a system designated to negate the inertia of a moving mass completely like some freeze ray.

Laura pulled Cecilia from the floor using the thread around her neck and kicked her away. She then turned her attention to Ling, who swiped her with her now spare right hand.

Dart and Ichika were feeling disgusted, and even more when Charles told them something else dreadfully.

"So cruel... Those attacks penetrate their shield energy!"

"Stop it, Laura! Stop it!" Ichika yelled begging her to stop. Laura heard his words and looked to him…and gave him a taunting grin.

"That fucking bitch!" Dart spat with absolute rage. Ichika was in agreement before the two activated there IS and barged through the protective barrier surrounding the seating area and went towards the silver-haired maniac at full speed.

Laura tossed Ling to the side and pointed her right hand forward and emitted a spherical psychic-like shield stopping Ichika who was faster than Dart by a bit in his tracks. Dart approached and threw a punch using his closed VN and pushed Laura back.

"Ichika, let's fucking kill her." Dart gritted filled solely with rage.

"No, we have to check on the girls." Ichika disagreed, hating to admit it but saving Ling and Cecilia was a priority.

"Then you do that and I deal with her," the Build Banshee rushed forward again but with a beam Tonfa in his left arm equipped. "RRAAAGGGHHH!"

Laura was prepared for him and shot her left arm forward again, emitting another AIC and caught the Build Banshee when it tried to slash from left to right.

"Interesting…Let me show you the difference between generations," Laura mocked.

"Never underestimate a Gundam, you bitch!"

"Here I come!" Laura held her right arm back with a beam Tonfa equipped and sliced down at the frozen Dart.

Laura's strike was stopped when surprisingly, Chifuyu appeared in front of her wielding an Uchigane's sword held sideways to have the sharp end block the attack.

"I...Instructor?!" Laura said stunned.

"This is why dealing with brats is so tiring." She said annoyed. Laura instantly stood down, but Dart partially did it because as soon as Chifuyu was gone he was going to continue attack Laura for what she did to Cecilia and Ling.

"Chifuyu," Ichika muttered kneeling down next to Ling.

"I don't mind mock battles…but I will not tolerate you kids violating rules in doing so. Why don't you just take this fight in the tournament?" She asked looking between Laura and Dart.

"…If that's what you say, Instructor."

"And what about you?" She asked Dart who grit his teeth at her.

"Fine," he moved his eyes back up to Laura still having her in his sights.

"Very well… Then, until the Intra-grade tournament, all of these types of engagements are prohibited! That's all!" She declared loudly and remained in the middle to stop any more fights.

Laura deactivated her IS and walked away in the opposite direction of Dart. He turned around and began to move towards where Ichika and the two girls were still in his IS. Chifuyu kept a closer eye on Dart, knowing he would disobey her and go after Laura with her back turned. He just flew further away from her for a few more seconds until he made his move.

Turning around quickly he charged towards as fast as he could towards Laura. He wasn't satisfied how she was left unpunished after she brutally injured two students without remorse like a psycho. He needed to make sure she got an eye for an eye, injury for injury.

" **SILVER**!" Chifuyu yelled with dare warning.

He ignored her and went after Laura.

When she turned around she was grabbed by the throat and held high in the air with his right hand. Laura began to gasp for air as Dart began to repetitively punch her in the gut with his VN. Everyone watching this was horrified by Dart's snap.

 ** _POW, POW, POW, POW_**

 **"** Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh." Laura moaned in pain after each hit.

After four blows to the chest, he held his now opened VN claws, revealing five teeth-like claws and was about to deal the final blow to her until Chifuyu stuck her sword between the claws and held them back. And she did not look happy.

"SILVER! You're banned from the tournament!"

"Banned?" Ichika overheard his sister and looked on with widened eyes and bewilderment.

Dart looked down to the teacher behind him to the left. "Release her immediately!" Dart was semi-satisfied with taking the law into his own hands. He released his hand grip from Laura as she hit the ground gasping for air. He then deactivated his IS to the immediate threaten of Chifuyu when she held her sword towards him. He held his hands up, motioning he had enough as he walked backwards to Ichika. "If you touch Laura, or another student violently again outside of a fight, you will be suspended indefinitely!"

"Warning heard. I was just doing the job of punishing someone who physically harmed two students. Since a teacher won't do it," Dart turned around and walked away from the failure of a teacher.

* * *

 **\- Infirmary -**

Cecilia and Ling lied under the covers of an infirmary bed each with the top of the bend bent upwards to allow them to rest with their back up. Cecilia had a bandage wrapped around her head and around her right arm from the shoulder to her hand while Ling had one around her forehead, all the way down her left arm and around her right wrist.

They were both healing and humiliated.

Charles and Ichika stood at the centre of both beds while Dart lied against the window closest to Cecilia.

"You two didn't have to save us like that, you know." Ling said looking between Ichika and Dart with her eyes. She was only saying that to prove she wasn't weak and wasn't going to accept the loss.

"If we had continued, we would have won." Cecilia added in the same mood as Ling. The two were more than humiliated when they knew the boys they liked had watched them in such a poor performance. It was similar to seeing them in an embarrassing moment.

"Hey, be thankful you weren't injured any more than you are," Dart stepped in scolding the two.

"And what did you have to do that for, Dart?!" Cecilia returned with a scolding of her own to the lad. She stared at him disapprovingly. "Thanks to what you did you're banned from the tournament!"

"Protecting you and getting back at Laura for what she did can't out-weight the participation of a tournament." In short, he was more concerned for her than the tournament.

"How did you two end up in a fight with Laura in the first place," Charles inquired changing the subject. This was on the mind of Ichika and Dart as well, though Dart could think of a reason for why Cecilia fought her. Probably what he said last night during their dinner together got her riled up.

The two resting girls now looked shy from their tough fronts.

"Well…" Ling began.

"How should I put it? Because she insulted a woman's pride," Cecilia explained on behalf of herself and Ling.

"Oh did she speak badly of Ichika and-" Charles gathered.

"Shut up!" In the spur of the embarrassment Ling and Cecilia shouted at the same time to tell Charles to zip it. From what Dart and Ichika heard they could presume Laura spoke ill of those two which would explain the taunt.

But then a quake started to begin. It was light to begin with but got heavier as each second passed. The medicine bottles on the shelves rattled violently as the door was barged through by a stampede of Class 1-1 girls flooding into the room.

"Orimura!"

"Dunois!"

In a quick moment, the entire room was filled with energetic girls. The original five were surrounded.

"Wh-What's this?" Ichika looked around the room of girls.

"Please pair up with me!" They shouted at the same time. The boys had no idea what was going on. A girl explained that the tournament was going to be a tag-team one with two teams of two facing off against each other. The girls shouted and begged for the two boys who were able to be in the tournament to be paired up with them.

Rumors did spread fast about what happened. The spectators during that declaration of ban for Dart spread the word throughout Class 1-1.

"Sorry, but I'm going to be pairing up with Charles, so please stop it." Ichika politely declined all their offers with a clap of his hands apologetically.

"Ichika…" Charles was speechless.

"Well, of that's the case…"

"That does seem better than pairing up with any other girl…"

"A boys' pair sounds beautiful… Yes."

The girls said sadly as they began to march out of the room, some with their heads down.

"Seems they all got to the point," Ichika muttered to Charles.

"Y-Yeah."

"Hey!" Ling shouted. "I think as a childhood friend, I'm a better choice for you!"

"You can't," a voice denied walking into the room through a side door. "Your IS unit has sustained Level C damage. If we don't work on the comprehensive repairs right away, it might even further the damage to the units. Above it all, you won't get permission to participate, regardless of your IS unit's status. The same goes for you, Alcott."

The girls wanted to fight back against the teacher to allow them to fight, but they accepted their conditions in the end and sighed.

"Well, that was easy," Ichika commented.

"Well, you see as IS requires a great amount of power to start up, remember? But when the damage is critical and it's impossible to start up, at that time of critical damage the unit does into an energy bypass phase. This is to prevent further damage or corruption that may happen to the unit the next time it activated." Charles explained to Ichika.

"Oh I see. Kind of how people can't work well when they're not feeling good. Their movements and actions are also affected by that."

"I'm sorry that you'll miss out on something so important, but I hope next time you shouldn't be so hasty." Yamada warned Ling and Cecilia.

"Y-Yes," they replied at the same time.

* * *

 **\- Room 1052 –**

 _Ker-Klunk_

Dart entered through the door to his room and flicked the lights on since it was getting dark outside. He walked further into the room with the only sound being made were his footsteps on the floor.

He never had this type of silence before. Usually when he walked into the room Cecilia would always be making a sound with some conversation with him.

"It's quiet…" he said to himself with a sigh. He walked over to the bottom of his bed, sat down and lied down on his back with his arms apart stretching out to the sides. He sighed once more but with more air. "So I'm banned from the tournament, huh? If Cecilia wasn't in her current condition she would have loved to be paired up with me." He raised his right hand in the air and slammed it down against the bed as hard as he could. He gritted his teeth, "Only if I had gone to training with her during lunch, I could have saved her and Ling." He then brought his right fist to in front of him. "At least I got my hands on her and got some payback. I still have to vent my remaining rage on her, but I can do that another time when I won't get into trouble by that prejudiced teacher."

* * *

 **\- Room 1025 -**

"Ichika, thanks for helping me earlier today." Charles gratefully thanked as she sat on her bed on the left side staring at her partner for the tournament at the bottom of his bed.

"I should be thanking you. You were the one who helped me." Ichika shrugged off her thanks. He thought she meant something else but she meant back at the infirmary.

"No. that's not the case. I meant when you said you'd pair up with me."

"Pair, huh? It's only because I'm the only one who knows the truth about you, Charles. It's obvious that I should support you, right?"

"You didn't need to. It's because you're always there to help anyone in need." She placed her right hand on her chest happily, "It made me really happy."

"You know you don't need to keep talking like a man around me, okay?"

"Yeah, I thought so too but…since I've gone through some thorough conditioning going into the academy; it's not as easy as I thought. Maybe for me to act like a girl is a little strange…? But if it bugs you that much, I can work on it."

"No, it' bad if you try to force yourself, right? I don't think you're weird when you act like a girl. In fact, I think you look rather cute." Ichika said with a straight face.

"C-Cute…? Me?" She jumped with flatter. "Really? You're not lying?"

"I'm not, believe me," Ichika stood up from his and turned around so he could face the door. "You haven't changed right? I'll head into the bathroom until you're done."

"Okay," and so Charles began to strip as Ichika headed away to go into the bathroom and leave her some privacy. However a few seconds after the sound of stripping clothes was heard, a thump was heard next.

"Ow… My leg got caught," Charles fell onto the floor with her butt raised in the air. She still had the IS pants on so luckily her underwear wasn't in view.

"Charles, are you okay?" Ichika rushed over to his fallen roommate. Charles looked in the direction where she saw Ichika running towards her. She had a tear in her eye and was at the point she would scream.

Unfortunately when Ichika did come to Charles he accidentally tripped on the floor and in the process, pulled her pants down and revealed her butt.

"I'm sorr-!"

 ** _POW_**

Like a horse reacting to a sudden appearance behind it, she kicked Ichika in the face and knocked him out cold.

* * *

 **\- Arena 3, Male Locker Room -**

The seats around the arena were fully taken by first year, second year and third year students alike talking to each other about how hyped they are to see the tag team battles.

Charles and Ichika got dressed in the male locker room into their respective IS uniforms. They had one objective and that was to win against Laura who he hoped to match against. However since it was a tag team battle, she would have a partner.

"This is pretty amazing," Ichika spoke rhetorically. He looked up at a TV screen on the corner of the room. It showed the outside and how full the arena was with spectators and people from other countries as well. In the central VIP seating area was eight adults who were at the IS Academy to scout out the third year students while others were there to evaluate the progress the others this past year.

"I wonder who Houki is going to team up with," he added. "They mentioned something about a lottery for people who couldn't find a partner.

"It looks like the match with Bodewig is the only thing on your mind, Ichika." Charles said coming out from the lockers and rejoining Ichika.

He turned around looking casual, "Yeah."

"Don't let your emotions affect you," she warned with care. "I think Bodewig is the strongest in the freshman class right now." The TV screen changed from the view of the VIPs and who was attending to the brackets for Year 1 Block A. "The matchups are out," she walked up to the screen with a stern look. When they looked at their place in A3, they became horrified to see who they were fighting in the A2 bracket in the first fight.

Laura Bodewig and Houki Shinonono.

* * *

 **\- Infirmary –**

Since Cecilia and Ling spent the night in the infirmary beds to heal, they stayed in bed and watched the tournament through the plasma TV screen in the room. On a chair sitting to the left of Cecilia's bed was Dart. He looked at the brackets and he smiled. He knew Ichika and Charles were going to win.

"I'm surprised Bodewig's able to compete after that beating to her," he said rhetorically.

"Beat her, Ichika!" Ling shouted from her bed waving her fist. She itched for revenge against Laura and seeing her lose would be a good way to sate it, seeing her getting pushed off her high horse.

* * *

 **\- Arena -**

The four pilots too centre stage, aiming down at each other.

On one side was Ichika and Charles in there is, with Laura in her IS and Houki an Uchigane. Ichika and Laura were itching for the signal to sound so they could duke it out already.

"Who would've thought we would face each other in the first round?" Laura asked. "It spared the wait."

"I'm glad to hear that," replied Ichika. "The feeling's mutual."

 **5**

 **4**

 **3**

 **2**

 **1**

"I'll beat you to a pulp!" Ichika and Laura cried at the same time.

 **0**

 ** _BEEP_**

Without a second thought Ichika barged towards Laura with his sword pulled back ready to swing. She pushed her right hand forward and emitted her AIC, stopping Ichika in front of her and ceased his lunge.

In the infirmary Cecilia, Ling and Dart facepalmed each other despite knowing the trait of her AIC from yesterday's outbreak.

"A rush attack, eh?" Laura mocked. "You're so predictable."

"Thank you," he said sarcastically with a smile. "I'm glad our thoughts are in sync. Charles now!" At his command Charles appeared behind him and flew up, aimed at Laura with her sniper rifle. She pressured Laura with fire, getting through the weakness of the AIC. While it did stop anything it was pointed towards, it sucked fending off multiple targets.

Laura brought down her AIC and began a retreat, sliding away. Charles took to the air, "You're not getting away!" She quickly changed her equipment to an assault rifle and an SMG and fired down on her.

Her shots missed until Houki came up to the front with her energy shield up. She quickly moved from defense to repelling her bullets with sword swings. She repelled about four as the last one hit back at Charles. This caused Charles to lose control, starting to spin backwards like a helicopter and landed back down near Ichika.

"I don't want you to forget about me." Houki informed taking a samurai stance. She rushed forwards to Charles who took to the air again and allowing Ichika to charge ahead and engage in in sword combat.

Houki struck downwards while Ichika was on the defense blocking her sword. However Houki forgot about Charle who landed behind Ichika and took aim at the busy Houki. She fired once at Houki, but her teammate saved her by wrapping a wire around her IS leg and threw her back without a care in the world.

"What are you doing?!" Houki yelled as she flew backwards. Laura ignored her and charged towards the two boys and equipped her beam Tonfas. The pulled back teammate slid back on her back, crying uncomfortably.

Laura engaged in a back-and-forth melee battle with Ichika using his sword. While the two were busy, Laura shot out two wires that went around Ichika and towards Charles who evaded them.

Houki got back up and charged again towards Ichika. However, she was fired upon by Charles spraying her with bullets.

"I'm sorry I'm not Ichika."

"Don't make a fool of me!" Houki yelled with her shield up to take the hits. So she charged forwards while blocking and struck down at Charles. She unequipped her rifle and changed to a knife, blocking the sword hit. With the HE gun Charles had in her left hand, she fired twice causing Houki to take a few steps back and become shrouded in dust.

Houki was okay but her IS wasn't. Through the metal sleeves steam rose up, deactivating the IS. A red prompt appeared on her HUD saying "Cannot Continue Fighting".

She had been eliminated, so that meant Laura was the only target.

Charles switched targets to Laura and fired two explosive rounds at her and separated the two fighters. With Laura back, Charles rejoined Ichika.

"You saved me, thanks. Where's Houki?"

'She's taking a little tie out."

"Good job. Then I'll finish her with this one."

Ichika's IS powered up, making it emit a golden aura around his Byakushiki. He charged ahead and so did Charles who swapped her gun to a submachine gun. She fired as she advanced on her but as soon as she got in range she was stopped by the AIC. Coming from Laura's left; Ichika approached and swung his sword. Laura stopped her AIC and flew back and evaded Ichika's strike.

Unfortunately that strike used up the majority of the energy of Ichika's IS and stopped flowing gold.

But Ichika was ruthless with his charges and charged once more, not caring his IS lost its ability to deplete her shields with one strike. Yet his movement was froze with the use of the AIC and Laura aimed her cannon down at Ichika.

"Have you forgotten? There are two of us," behind Ichika was Charles aiming her guns at Laura. Her shots make her shoulder cannon explode and made it inoperable, blowing off smoke.

Ichika charged again with his sword, but was stopped by the AIC. However Charles equipped her Shield Peirce, which took the form of a nail, and rushed towards Laura and hit her stomach, severely depleted her shield energy.

She was launched back and crashed into the wall and hit to the floor. She stood up again and watched as Charles approached her still armed with the Shied Peirce and continued to hit her with it a few more times until there was a yellow glow under Laura's left eye patch.

"I…won't…lose…!" Laura cried at the top of her lungs and emitted electric sparks around her body. Charles pulled away from Laura and stayed on guard. Suddenly, Laura shot out a blue light that pushed Charles down to the ground with a heavy gust.

Strangely, Laura's IS melted into a chrome-like slime and began to swallow her hole, morphing into something. Everyone was scared and confused at what was happening.

"Announce a Level D alert,: Chifuyu said to Yamada in the control room.

[An emergency situation was arisen. All matches have been cancelled. Level D situation. Teachers will be sent to suppress the situation. All guests and students, evacuate at once.]

A female over the comms informed as the seating area were closed off by a metal shield to prevent anyone from being hurt.

The chrome slime merged into one being which looked like something that Ichika would know. It was like a woman in an Uchigane.

 _'_ _The appearance…and the Yukihara?'_ He thought knowing this shape as like Chifuyu's IS wielding the same sword. With swift movement, the new enemy moved towards Ichika and struck down, sending him down on the ground breaking off his left shoulder armor in the process.

"Gwhaaaa!" He cried.

"Ichika!" Charles yelled in panic.

Ichika managed to sit back up rubbing some dirt from his chin, _'That sword technique. There's no mistake. That's the technique Chifuyu taught me!'_

He stood back up holding his gut. Houki ran up to him and held his left shoulder, "Ichika! What are you doing?! Do you want to die?!" Ichika pushed his shoulder forward to get away from her hand. "What are you trying to do?! The Byakushiki doesn't have energy…! Even if you do nothing, I'm sure the instructors will…"

"That thing copied Chifuyu's data. That technique was Chifuyu's. It's not because I have to do it, but because I _want_ to do it. Either way, I can't rest until this trash can is gone for good!" He looked to Charles, "Charles, I have a bit of energy left."

"Right," she nodded. "I'll give you the Revive's remaining energy. In return, promise you won't lose."

"I don't plan to."

Charles deactivated her IS and sent all of her remaining IS energy over to Ichika, though it was only enough to deploy a left hand and the sword.

"All done. I:ve given you all of my energy. Sorry I can send you more."

"It's okay. It's all I needed." He turned his attention to the idle threat. "Reiryaku Byakuya!" His beam blade extended with power. He charged for the last time with his sword ready to strike. The idle monster raised its samurai sword in the air and held it there to slam down.

Ichika was the faster one and swung his sword to the left and then to the right to cut the monster in the middle, and once more with a double slice. A cut appeared in the middle of the figure as it started to melt and released Laura from the centre and into the hands of Ichika who saved her.

The threat was defeated.


	10. Chapter 10

**DocSlendy - Same with me. The teachers in the anime or manga don't even do anything to punish the wrongdoers.**

 **Guest - Sorry, I know I went off the facts but I really wanted to add where Dart threatened Laura with the claws as he looked her in the eyes without hiding behind a mask.**

 **Chapter X**

 **The Beach Episode**

* * *

 **\- Infirmary, Later That Day –**

"Mm… Where am I?" Laura asked weakly waking up as she found herself lying on her back on a bed in the infirmary. She had no memory of what occurred during her match against Ichika and Charles.

The curtain to her right was pulled open and revealed Chifuyu who opened the curtain with one arm. She was stoic as always.

"Oh, you've come to?"

"Instructor," Laura sat up, but having trouble to do so.

"Bearing the full brunt of that causes muscle fatigue and exhaustion. Don't push yourself," she seemed to kind in talking to Laura despite what happened.

"Just what…happened?"

"Well, barring some important issues, there is that highly secret matter we need to worry about," she said walking through the curtain. "Are you familiar with the VT System?"

"The "Valkyrie Trace System"? If I recall, it was a system that put the user in a trance that makes them move like the winner of the past IS World Championships-"

"Yes. Currently, under the IS Treaty, its research, development and use is strictly forbidden. Though it was something that was in your IS. The pilot's mental state during a period where the IS sustains damage, as well as the pilot's desires… Those are the conditions for the system to activate."

Laura placed her hand over left eye which had a bright yellow iris due to the VT System. "…Because I wished for it…to be like Instructor."

"Laura Bodewig!"

"Y-Yes!" Laura flinched.

"Who are you?" Chifuyu questioned with the voice of a tough interrogator demanding answers.

"I…I am… I am…" Laura could not figure who she even was anymore.

Chifuyu headed to where she came in through the curtain, "if you are no one right now, then that's perfect. In which case, be "Laura Bodewig" from now on." She turned her head back to Laura. "You can't become me. If you do become his sister, you won't get over the anxiety." She turned her head back around and waved, "You've got a lot of time to think about it before you die. Stress about it gracefully, kid." She then closed the curtain behind her and left Laura alone again to figure out who she was and what she was going to do from now on.

"…"

Laura looked to her right and saw on the bed side table that she had her eye patch on it. She reached for it and placed it around her head, covering her left eye once more. She got out of the bed and took a stroll taking Chifuyu's words to heart.

"Think as yourself, and act like yourself…huh?" For the first time she grew a small smile. "Heh, utter defeat." She approached the window overlooking the IS Academy and laughed it out.

* * *

 **\- Cafeteria -**

Charles, Ichika and Dart sat at the same stall inside the cafeteria with a cup of coffee in front of them each.

"So they cancelled the tournament after all." Ichika muttered holding his cup and looked inside of it, as if he was inspecting it from top to bottom.

"They wanted to collect the student's data so I guess they just wanted to push through with only the first round." Charles commented placing sugar in her coffee.

"So ban or no ban, I wouldn't have been able to fight in the tournament," Dart said taking a long gulp of his coffee. He ceased his drink and placed his cup back on the small cup. "That's something."

"It almost seems you weren't banned at all," Ichika said.

"Good news you three!" Yamada came rushing out of nowhere towards the table the three sat at. This call got them by surprise, having made them jump a bit.

"What is it, Miss Yamada?" Charles questioned.

The green haired teacher stopped before the table with a few huffs. "Ah yes… Today you can use the bathhouse, but we forbid using it on days when the boiler gets maintained, but the maintenance ended earlier than usual. And so," she was getting excited to say something that will really get the boys happy. "We'll be allowing the boys' bathhouse hours starting today!"

"For real?!" Ichika and Dart exclaimed with a big smile. After she gave the news, she took her leave.

"Why don't we go to the bathhouse together after we had out tea?" Ichika asked Dart and Charles, the latter starting to become worried that she'll have her true gender revealed to Dart. In a bathhouse of all places with naked bodies. But lucky for her, Dart had other plans.

"I'm sorry Ichika, I'd like to come to the bathhouse with you two but I have to head back to my dorm. Cecilia is still injured from yesterday and since she can only move one arm, she asked me to…" he took a long gulp. "Wash her tonight. I'm sure she's just making excuses, but doing this'll be paying her back for missing training with her."

Charles gave a long mental sigh of relief and Ichika giggled.

"Have fun with that, dude."

Dart shot a comedic cold glare at Ichika. "I starting to regret backing you up during that tournament."

* * *

 **\- Bathhouse -**

"So refreshing," Ichika let his muscles relax in the warmth and the soothing warm water. It couldn't get any great than right now. "So good we can do it today. Sorry if I made you worry, Charles."

He heard the door to the bathhouse slid open and footsteps approaching him from behind. "I…I'm coming in…" Charles spoke.

"'Kay, go ahead-" he replied singingly until he repeated her words in is head. She was joining in in the same bath?! "Charles…!" He turned around alarmingly.

Thankfully she had a towel around her.

She blushed, "Don't gawk at me like that…you perv…"

Sometime after she got into the bath, the two sat in the middle with their backs to each other. It was the only way they could enjoy the bath together without having to look at each other's bodies.

"Why am I here… I really did want to go into the bath too and I wanted to talk with you too, Ichika. And um…I did say that before, but…" Charles began a conversation between the two.

"" _That before?_ "" He quoted. "Oh, about you wanting to stay in this academy?"

"Yeah, I really wanted to stay here. I, really can't imagine myself being anywhere else. Also," Ichika heard and felt the water behind him move like Charles was moving. She did and hugged the back of Ichika, rubbing her breasts against his back. He flinched and was blushing. "You were the one who told me to stay here, Ichika. Because you're here, Ichika, I want to stay here with you. Also, I've decided again…what I really want. Isn't that what you've taught me, Ichika? You can call me Charlotte from now on, only when it's just the two of us, okay?"

"Charlotte? Is that your real name?"

"Yeah, the name that my mother had given me."

"…Alright, Charlotte. By the way, what did you mean by " _really want_?"

"Hm? Ah, well that is…"

* * *

 **\- Class 1-1 –**

It was Friday morning and the atmosphere inside Class 1-1 was speechless. In front of the class next to the awkward looking teacher Miss Yamada, was no longer Charles, but Charlotte. Charlotte wore the female-version of the IS Academy Uniform.

"I'm Charlotte Dunois. Once more, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance!" She reintroduced herself. It wasn't more than a second the entire class erupted with one constant yell.

"EEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!" The girls yelled at the same time like a choir.

"I thought it was weird!"

"It wasn't a pretty boy, but a pretty girl!"

"…Eh? Wait a minute, didn't the boys use the bathhouse last night?"

"HA!" Dart stood up with the upmost boast. He grinned victoriously pointing towards the real identify of Charles. His guts were right and so was he. "I had a feeling you were a girl since that practice a few days ago!"

"Ichika…?" Houki said slowly as if she was going to beat the crap out of him if he didn't explain.

Barging through the front door of the class came in Ling deployed in her Shenlong. Her eyes glowed with a demonic presence overhearing the ruckus in the class next door. "Die, Ichikaaaaa!" She roared charging up her Impact Cannons. She fired at Ichika but an unexpected savoir came to save the day.

It was Laura in her Schwarz Regen. She had her right hand forward with the AIC deployed.

"Laura…?"Ichika asked dumbfounded before his savoir picked him up and kissed him, right in front of the entire class making another surprised chant.

Dart blinked three times. He was beyond confused now. She was abusing him one and two days before and now she's here kissing him? That was messed up.

Laura let go of the kiss, "I will make you my wife! That's decided and resistance is futile!" She boldly declared, although she was confused with the martial part of who the groom was and who the wife was.

Then he felt three deadly auras around him being emitted by Houki, Charles and Ling. They were frightening and penetrating.

"Ichika…it seems you have a lot of explaining to do," Houki threatened.

"Ah, why you, what the hell are you doing?!" Ling threatened next.

"Ichika, you shared a kiss in front of everyone like that. I was so surprised," Charles threatened next; preparing to summon her IS and punish him. But since luck was bestowed upon Ichika today, he had another savior but it was his sister that approached the front door. She wasn't looking happy at all.

"What do you brats think you're going to do to my classroom?" She asked coldly, instantly frightening most students in the room. "Ling, scram! And for the rest of you, get into your seats!"

Her order was heeded with immediate attention. Ling ran off back to her room as fast as she would lest provoke the wrath of Chifuyu and the others in her class went back to their seats. When decorum returned, she walked up to the lectern and began to address the class.

"Now that you brats have piped down, I have an announcement. In two days on Sunday we're all heading to a beach resort and staying the night there. But starting on Monday we're conducting a practical IS exam there, so be prepared!"

"Yes!" All the girls responded.

 _'_ _So going to a beach resort on Sunday for a practical exam on Monday?'_ Cecilia thought to herself before she grew a pleasant grin, closing her eyes. _'That means Dart and I have all day Saturday to ourselves and I can try out numerous swimsuits to show him.'_

* * *

 **\- Later That Night, Unknown Location -**

A pink haired girl typed away on a high tech screen so fast a normal human couldn't type that fast. She was surrounded by gadgets and technologies like some sort of technology freak.

A Japanese-like tone was heard in her pocket. It was a ringtone that she had set for a special person she treasures. Her robotic rabbit wars bent down and up a few times in reaction to it.

"This ringtone…" She grabbed her phone with haste in order to pick it up as fast as she could. "Yeah, it's me~!" She cheerfully greeted. "How have you been?!"

"I've been waiting for your call~!"

"You want it, don't you? Your "only one", which belongs to only you," the pink haired girl turned her chair around and faced a red IS suit she personally made for who was talking to her.

"It's overspecced with high-end features, pretty much on par with that white unit… This unit's name is…"

* * *

 **\- Saturday, Mall –**

"Ahh~ It feels good back to being in my regular clothes," Dart said comfortingly walking arm and arm with an ecstatic Cecilia on his right as the two began their planned date in the mall.

He dressed in his black pants and black polo shirt with the Welsh Feathers on the left chest while the lady he escorted wore a white silk dress ending at her thighs with a blue frilly trim around the skirt. Over the top part of the dress she had a black short and silk jacket that only went to her hips and sleeves that reached her elbows. She had small blue flowers as a trim and for footwear she had black dockside shoes.

"It feels good to be on a date with darling," Cecilia hummed joyfully moving herself closer to her date. She also tightened her grip around his right arm from the happiness she felt. She just didn't want this date to end. Cecilia looked up to her male escort, "Where shall we go first? I was hoping we could go clothing shopping first for the beach trip tomorrow."

"I guess we could do that, but I'm a little strict for cash at the moment," Dart replied scratching his left chin with his finger. "So I won't be able to be the gentleman," he only carried a wallet with fewer than 10000 Yen ($100 in USD). The rest of his cash was in a bank account but he doubted if this world of IS had the same branch from his world.

"It's okay, Dart." Cecilia consoled. "This shopping is on me," guessed she was too happy at the moment she was charitable. "You can buy lunch to make up for it."

"I don't have a problem with that." Dart replied as the two daters found a beach shop nearby and went into it to find the proper beach wear for tomorrow.

The interior was about the size of any shop in a mall and was decorated heavily with the beach theme: posters of the beach and models in swimwear on the walls and surfboards on wooden bases on the corners of the store. On the left half of the shop was male gear and on the right side was the female gear.

As soon as Dart and Cecilia went through the door, Cecilia dragged Dart over to the female section displaying bikinis which made him slightly uncomfortable. Cecilia released her grip from his arm and started to browse the bikinis on the racks.

"What do you think will look good on me, darling?"

"Why don't you pick something blue that matches your lovely eyes?" Dart suggested saying "lovely eyes" with a softer tone. Cecilia looked to Dart with a blush on both of their cheeks.

"You think my eyes are lovely?" She asked again with a sweeter tone and a joyful smile, jumping back a bit from that compliment.

"Y-Yeah…" He answered turning his head away from her to save him some embarrassment.

"Thank you, darling!" She then went back to browsing the swimwear with more effort to find a swimsuit that was blue, according to Dart's preference. She couldn't find any good blue swimsuits in the rack where she was, so she looked around the shop from where she stood and had found a swimsuit along the wall. She led Dart to it. "How about this one?"

The bikini top was a blue bra that covered the majority of the breast area and the bottom was normal blue underwear but there was a separate skirt that was knotted on the left side by the hip.

"I think I'll have a batter opinion if you tried it on."

"Okay, I'll head to a changing room," Cecilia grabbed the blue bikini from the rack and made her way to the changing rooms with Dart in tow.

Whilst Cecilia got changed to the sound of stripping her clothes, Dart waited in patiently with his looking away from the changing room door to see Cecilia come out in the swimsuit when she's ready.

' _This date is going fine for the moment,'_ Dart thought to himself with a calm attitude. ' _If we keep going like this I might end up falling for her.'_ He then looked cautious, _'But some time or later I have to tell her the truth I'm not from this world. If relationships are about being open to each other, I have to tell her the truth. But does it matter anyway? My Build Banshee has turned into an IS, this world isn't as different as mine and I'm blending right in.'_

"-bad doesn't it?" Dart was too deep in thought he zoned out of reality. Cecilia had already opened the door from the changing room dressed in the blue bikini. She looked at his expression first thing and he looked disapprovingly. He quickly snapped back into reality, giving the blond British woman a smile.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking about something on my mind. Can you repeat what you said?"

"It looks bad doesn't it?" She repeated with slight concern for what could be in his mind to warrant that expression.

He looked down from her head to her toes and then back up to her head, observing how it looked.

"The swimsuit definitely matches your eyes and makes you look incredible," he nonchalantly spoke putting his truthful opinion on the table.

"Really?" She replied happily spinning around flapping the skirt with her movement.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I think you should get that one."

"Okay!" She went back into the changing rooms cheerfully and changed back into her casual clothing again.

"Man, she's easy to impress…" he muttered.

* * *

"Thank you very much! Come again!" The cashier bid Cecilia and Dart from the store as they walked out of the shop with Dart holding a white bag containing a bikini and a swimming short.

Once again like a magnet, Cecilia latched herself around Dart's right arm and brought herself closer to him to the point it seemed like she was hugging him as they walked.

By hoe close she was to Dart his entire time it looked like she didn't know anything about personal space.

"Where shall we go now, Dart?"

"Umm, Cecilia. I know we're on a date and that you're happy, but can you at least, you know, space yourself from me and hold my arm normally?" He asked politely to the realization of Cecilia, blinking her eyes staring up at him.

"Oh, sorry Dart," she respected his wishes with a slightly sad tone and increased the distance between him and her, allowing the two to walk normally.

"As for where we should go, how about we head to the food court and have some-"

"Dart? Cecilia?" Dart was stopped when someone called their names. It belonged to a familiar voice from the academy. The two looked to the right towards the voce and it was Ichika and Houki on a date together. But for some reason they were still in there IS Academy uniforms.

"Ichika? Houki? Are you here on a date as well?" Dart questioned coming to a stop for a little chat.

"Yeah, we are and it seems you're on one as well with Cecilia." Ichika replied.

"We've just done our shopping for beach clothes and we're about to head to the food court. Why don't you two join us? The lunch is on Dart." Cecilia commented.

"Eh?" Dart jumped.

Ichika turned to his date on his left, "What do you think, Houki? Should we make this a double date?"

"I'd like to, Ichika." Houki nodded with a smile on her face agreeing to tag along with the Welshman and Englishwoman. Cecilia was pleased about the join, but Dart was grinding his teeth with immense worry.

By the end of the day he swore he was going to be poor and it's all thanks to Cecilia's mouth.

* * *

 **\- The Next Day, Beach –**

"It is now eleven o'clock! It's free time until evening! You are all to return to the inn by dinnertime!" Miss Yamada in a yellow swimsuit that was covered under a white zipped jacket shouted to the students in swimwear gathered around the beach. "Do all of you understand?"

"Yes!" All of the students on the beach and in the water replied simultaneously happily.

To begin the relaxation Ichika and Dart were surrounded by a group of four girls: Honne Nohotoke, Kiyoka Aikawa, Sauya Yorutake and Yuzu Tanimoto. The other girls was in some sort of swimwear, Honne was covered in a yellow suit covering her legs, chest and arms, as if it was a pair of pajamas. It had a fox tail with a white end on it and on her head were fox ears.

"Hey, Silver and Orimu~" Honne said nicknaming Ichika, "Play with us," she begged happily.

"Let's play beach volleyball," Kiyoka wished. It sounded good.

"Sure, where do we-"

Suddenly from behind him Ling jumped up onto his back like a baby hitching a ride on their father and climbed up until she had her legs around his neck.

"It's high up here!" Ling declared acting like a watchtower on his shoulders. "I can see all the way wonder," she said much to the jealousy of the other four girls. It looked fun and they wanted to do it too!

"What are you doing?! Are you a cat or something?" Ichika was clearly not happy with Ling using him as a post.

"That looks fun! I wanna do it too!" Hone exclaimed.

"Get off!"

"Then I'm after her!" Kiyoka shouted pointing to herself. Dart thought of something and sneakily crept around Kiyoka so he was facing her back. Since she had her legs open he crouched down and put his head between her legs, grabbed her thighs and stood up, surprising her.

"Up ya go!" Dart funnily said.

"S-Silver?" She jittered with shock. For some reason he started to walk towards the ocean, making sure she was held on tight. "Why are we heading to the ocean?" She asked.

"…" he stayed silent finally getting his feet submerged into the water. He walked further and further until his body up to his middle chest was submerged in the after and then…

"This is where you get off, milady," he threw her off his shoulders and splashed her into the water.

"Ahh-"

 ** _Splash_**

He and the others laughed with fun watching Kiyoka being sent into the water. She thrown girl rose from the water, splashing water everywhere around her and on Dart as well. She cleared her eyes with her hands and looked to Dart, puffing her cheeks.

"Silver!" She roared and chased after him out of the water and back onto the beach. Grinning with the same idea, Ichika began to walk into the water with the same idea Dart had. If she wasn't going to get off, he was going to make her.

However, halfway to the water Ling noticed he was planning to dump _her_ into the water so she quickly jumped off.

"What's wrong, Ling? Didn't you want to play watch tower?" Ichika asked teasingly.

"Not if you're going to throw me into the water, you idiot!" She growled.

And so the IS Academy students enjoyed the day at the beach to their hearts content with volleyball, swimming and relaxing on the beach until night struck, where the real fun was about to begin.

* * *

 **\- Cecilia's Room –**

"You're going to lose!"

"You're going to eat those words, girl!"

A card was faced down on a messy pile of cards of different colors and numbers. A green _draw two_ Uno card was placed down on top of a _green 1_ card.

"Eat that!" Kiyoka sounded overconfident making Dart, the next player to play, draw two cards. But he had a card that repelled the effect.

"Don't you mean, "eat this Honne"?" Dart put down a _red skip_ card to skip his turn and give the _draw two_ card effect to Honne. He had one card remaining, a _blue 2_ card. If a blue card or a card with number 2 on it was placed down he would win the game being the first to get rid of all of his cards; however he had to get through the turns of Cecilia then Kiyoka. They were also down to their last few cards, Kiyoka only having one left and Cecilia having two.

"Silver! You meanie!" Honne puffed her cheeks having to draw two cards from the pile. She now had four cards.

Cecilia's turn came up and she placed down a _green 6_ on top of the _green skip._ "Last card," she muttered.

"Heh, looks like I win," Kiyoka placed down a _blue 6_ , earning her the victory. "Yes!"

Dart threw his last card onto the pile and looked to Kiyoka, "Do you want to play again?"

"No," she replied thinking of something devious. Dart didn't like her look one bit. "I prefer to play another game – Truth or Dare." She said with a chilling feel down his spine. "Since I won Uno, I'll go first. Dart," she stared completely at him. "Truth, or dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you like Alcott?" She and Honne leaned in towards Dart and were keen to find the answer. Cecilia jumped from the question and blushed.

Inhaling once with a long breath, he prepared to speak the truth. "Yes, I like her."

"Ooh!" Kiyoka and Honne gasped excitedly while Cecilia remained speechless, overcome with flatter.

"My turn. Honne," now he was the one who stared with focus at another person. "Truth or dare?"

"Ooh, dare!"

"I dare you to tell me why you like to pull your sleeves over your arms."

Honne gave some thought into her answer, looking up into the air while doing so. "Oooh," when she hatched the answer, "Because they're comfy over my hands!" She looked over to the blond girl, "Cecilia, truth or dare?"

"Umm. I guess I'll go dare…"

"I dare you, to kiss Dart!"

"Ehh?!" Cecilia and Dart jumped unexpectedly at the same time revealing blushes on their faces. Dart began to stand up and back away slowly, "I. think I should be hitting the hay… Goodnight girls!" He rushed out of the room without another word as quickly as he could.

"Aww…" Kiyoka and Honne booed at the same time sounding upset. They really wanted to see Dart and Cecilia kiss right in front of them. But Cecilia, she took it another way – distressingly. Watching Dart's refusal to kiss her means he wasn't to go to that stage yet, or perhaps he wasn't genuinely interested in her.

* * *

 **\- The Next Day, Beach -**

The students of the IS Academy now wearing IS suits stood on the beach in lines in a military fashion with giant craters behind them storing practice IS suits. Some students helped getting the practice IS suits out with trolleys.

Before the students was Chifuyu.

"Very well, let is begin the practical exam as scheduled," she began with a loud officer-like tone addressing the students. "Mount your IS units. Other than that-"

"Miss Orimura!" Miss Yamada communicated from behind a monitor from inside the resort. She sounded stressed over the voice comms. "There's something that's falling from the sky!"

As if on cue, the thing that was spotted by Miss Yamada hit the sand in front of Chifuyu. When it landed it threw sand in every direction. What landed was an orange pod that was in the shape of a carrot.

Houki instantly knew what it was before it could open.

"Oh~ Sorry to keep y'all waiting~" The pod opened and quickly revealed a girl with pink long hair, robot rabbit ears that flapped and the girl herself looked too cheerful. "Hello, hello~! Everyone's idol, Shinonono Tabane has arrived~!"

The creator of the IS herself appeared in front of the entire class.

She looked around the class to see who was witnessing her grand appearance, and surprise surprise, she found Chifuyu. She locked her in her sights and flew over to her energetically.

"CHI-CHAAAAAN~!"

She wanted to hug the Mondo Grosso champion but something stood in her way – her gripping claws. Chifuyu had covered Tabane's eyes while she dug her fingers deep into her temples.

"Stop it, you're annoying."

"Ah, the merciless claw, just as I remember it."

Chifuyu released her grip and pushed her back, "We're in a lesson… Why did you come?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She jumped over to her little sister that was not as happy to see her as Tabane was to see her. "I wanted to see my super cute lil' sis~. You've sure grown up a lot since I last saw you, Houki! And your boobies are…" She was about to touch them, but…

"Leave me alone," Houki pushed Tabane's hand away.

Like a little baby Tabane ran away from Houki and towards another person she recognized easily, "Ikkun! Houki's being mean~!"

"Uh, nice to see you again, Tabane."

While Ichika and Tabane were rendezvousing, the classmates who have never seen Tabane before began to question whether if this was really the brilliant scientist that created the IS.

Chifuyu folded her arms and closed her eyes, "You can at least introduce yourself, for the students' sake."

"Eh~ That's too much work." Tabane moaned before cheering up and stared to the class. "I'm Tabane the Genius~! Hello! And done~." The class sweat dropped. It was like déjà vu listening to that half-assed introduction. When she wandered her eyes round the entire class, she lied eyes on the second male – the one she and Chifuyu talked about some time ago.

Dart Silver.

She rushed over to him and stared him in the face with a focused look, to the shock of the male student. Silence ensued for a moment until Houki saved Dart when she walked up to her sister.

"Um…about that "thing"…"

Tabane looked away from Dart and to her sister who then changed her cold expression to joy – the main reason why she was here.

"Ah! Of course! It's all ready to go!" She turned around and held her right arm in the air with open fingers, "Behold, the great sky!" No one had time to look up at the sky before the thing she mentioned crashed down onto the sand in front of her where no students stood. It was another pod but instead of a carrot shape, it was a red 3D diamond. "Tabane's newest creation – an ultimate IS that surpasses the specks of all present IS in every way… "

 _'_ _Hmph, I doubt it can be better than my Build Banshee'_

"This my dear, Houki, is your personal unit, the "Akatsuki"!"

The red 3D diamond opened slowly and revealed a red IS suit for all to see. It was customized and personalized for Houki.

"Akatsuki…" Houki muttered the name of her new IS once with awe. Now she wasn't the only one on the friend group that didn't have a personal IS.

"Right then, let's start with the fitting!"

Houki equipped her new IS as Tabane did some computer to adjust the IS to Houki's style. As she did it though, the students expressed their disgust for the spoilt brat in the IS. Getting a custom IS from Tabane was unfair, and all Houki had to do was call her sister and ask for one, just like that.

After the configuration was done, it was time for practical training. Houki took her IS for a test flight into the air above the sea. It was fast but not as fast as the Build Banshee in NT-D Mode. When Houki stopped in the air, Tabane instructed her to wield her two IS katanas, the Amazuki (Rainy Moon) and Karaware (Shattered Sky). The Amazuki was fitted for one-on-one combat, whilst the Karaware was for multi-target.

Out of thin air, Tabane conjured a SAM (surface-to-air) site filled with 16 missile tubes in them. Without hesitation, she fired the missiles all of at once. With one vertical slice of the Karaware, Houki shot an energy slash forward and the beam cut the missile sin half, making them explode. With that one swing, the missiles were destroyed.

While everyone was awed with the Akatsuki's display, Miss Yamada rushed up to Chifuyu with an emergency warning.

"Miss Orimura, it's an emergency!" She yelled huffing. She got up to Chifuyu and whispered in her ear for a while.

Once heard, Chifuyu turned back to the class and with one loud voice, "Attention everyone! From this point on, the faculty will be conducting a top-secret mission! All test operations are cancelled! Each group will put there is units back, and return to their respective rooms at the inn! If you do not have the proper clearance, going outside of your room is strictly-forbidden!"

"Y-Yes…!"

"Everyone with personal units, come over here! That means you, Shinonono!"

"Yes…!" Houki seemed more happy than concerned about what was happening at the moment.

* * *

 **Just to let you guys know I have Discord and now Tumblr so if you want to have a chat with me, feel free to add me on any of the three. I've left my usernames on my profile page.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello guys and welcome to the final chapter of The Gunpla IS. I've kept to what I said and will end the story after Season 1 in the anime. So I hoped you all enjoyed this story up to this point and will continue to read my other works if you're interested in them.**

* * *

 **Chapter XI**

 **The Rogue IS**

 **\- Briefing Room, Beach Resort –**

Gathered in a room with monitors showing graphs and data were the personal IS pilots of Class 1-1 and Ling from Class 1-2. They all sat around a rectangular table in the middle of the room with Chifuyu in a track suit in front of the table.

"Alright, here's your briefing," she began placing her left hand on her hip. "Two hours ago during a flight test, an IS under military custody went out of control. It's called the "Silvario Gospel", a third-gen unit developed by the jointly by the United States and Israel. According to information downloaded from the satellites, the unit passed through an area approximately 2km outside of our airspace. The staff will use training units and seal the airspace, while you guys are to stop the Gospel."

This sudden and dangerous news worried a few, naming Ichika and Dart. The other girls seemed composed, thinking of what to do but in truth they were also nervous a bit dancing with a berserk IS.

"Miss Orimura, I wish to see the data and the specs of the target IS," Cecilia requested.

"Alright…however, it's classified at the highest level of secrecy by both countries' military branches. Any leaks and you'll be put under trial by the court of inquiry. At worst they'll put you under two years of direct observation."

'It doesn't seem much of a punishment for leaking this info…' Dart thought.

"Yes ma'am!" Everyone replied at the same time. On the table in the centre of the room everyone was surrounding appeared a 2D image of the IS unit, detailing specs around it. Everyone stood up and looked at the details.

"It specializes in area-of-effect engagement, and attacks with an all-range assault capability." Cecilia said.

"The unit specializes in both mobility and attack…this sounds bad." Ling said next.

The special armaments are nothing short of devious," Charlotte said.

"At any rate, we know nothing about its melee capabilities. Shall we scout it out?" Laura asked.

The four girls were composed and focused explaining the IS specs like they were experienced analyzers. It was amazing.

"Scouting is impossible," Chifuyu denied. "The target is moving at supersonic speeds. We only have one chance to approach it."

"Just one…in which case, we need an attack that can take out the unit in one fell swoop." Miss Yamada input her opinion on the table. Then everyone in the room looked to Ichika with expected looks.

"Wait a sec. You want me to go?!"

"Obviously," Ling, Charlotte, Cecilia, Laura and Dart said at the same time.

"After analyzing the situation, your "Reiraku Byakuya" is our only option. But, this isn't practice. It's the real deal. If you're not prepared, I won't force you." Chifuyu said with a more friendly tone to his brother.

He clenched his fist confidently but he was also sweating from the peer pressure.

"I am…I'll do it!"

"Good, now we can plan concretely. Ichika will down the target with the Reiraku Byakuya. But now, the question is how to carry him there. The Byakushiki will need all of its energy for the attack. With the target's current speed, we'll definitely need some speed-sensitive hypersensors. I'm going to bet Dart will have the fastest one." She recalled his match against Ling where he used his NT-D mode and shot around the sky like a meteor.

"I can do that, but I would need to wait for a while to actually get my NT-D Mode activated to increase my IS's speed. If you want to deploy quicker I'll have to suffer damage to my shields to get it activated quicker."

"Wait, wait, wait~!" Tabane came down from the air vent upside down which landed the hatch to the vent drop down onto Ling's head. "That's DEFINITELY where the Akatsubaki shines!" She dropped down from the vent and onto the floor. "If I tweak the Akatsubaki's Fold-Out armor a little and there…then catching up to that supersonic unit should be a piece of cake!"

"Fold-Out armor?" Ichika questioned while Long was rubbing her head from the hit.

"Allow the generous Tabane to explain~! You see, "Fold-Out armor" is a special feature that the great Tabane has made for the fourth-gen IS units.

"Fourth-gen?! Charlotte and Cecilia questioned loudly simultaneously. "But aren't various nations only up to testing third-gen units…?!"

"And this is why they call me the genius Tabane!" She said proudly wagging her finger back and forth. "This is just for what I do for fun! Other units need to be equipped with package units in order to move at supersonic speeds. SO these package units improve the IS's speed and power performance… But fourth-gen units have a feature that "negates the need for package units". From the unit's original ability to transform itself comes the ability to adjust to any rile, any number of times – That is the Fold-out armor. By the way, the Byakushiki's Yukihara Type-2 is also a Fold-out armor."

"Eh?!" Everyone gasped learning that all this time Ichika's weapon is a Fold-out armor.

"That was a success so the Akatsubaki is equipped with a full-body full-out armor. We'll be able to finish this mission in time or dinner!"

"How long will it take you to adjust the Akatsubaki?"

"Gimme about 7 minutes~" She counted to 7 with her fingers, showing one hand fully open and the other hand closed except a the middle and index finger.

"I see, then…" Chifuyu stared at Houki standing back at the wall excluding herself from the others. "Can you do it, Shinonono?"

The girl in question looked at her new bracelet on her left wrist, staring at her Akatsubaki IS in standby form. She then looked at Ichika. If he was willing to danger himself to stop the rogue IS, then so shall she.

"Yes…I'll do it!"

* * *

 **\- Beach –**

Ichika and Houki were in their respective IS suits ready for the permission to go out and deal with this out of control IS.

"OK…all up to you, Houki."

"Hmph, while my pride really doesn't allow for a man to ride on a woman's back. I'll make an exception for you today, Ichika." Her overconfidence was getting to her already. It was worrying for Ichika. Being a new combatant and being overconfident was a bad mix.

"Houki, if there's anything that comes up that you don't get, just give me ample warning and-"

"Of course I know. What's wrong" Are you scared, Ichika? Don't worry. I'll make sure you get there safe. Just think of it as boarding an ocean liner."

"Hey Houki."

[Orimura, Shinonono. Do you copy?] Chifuyu asked over the comms from the briefing room.

"Yes!'

"Loud and clear."

[Our mission today is "One approach, one down". Focus on finishing it in the shortest time possible! Your target is the Silvario Gospel! From here on, it'll be known as Gospel.]

"Yes ma'am!" Both replied at the same time,

"Miss Orimura, should I support Ichika as the situation calls for it?" Houki asked.

[Yes, but don't do anything reckless. You have no experience with the Akatsubaki. If something does come up, you won't know how to respond.]

"I know…but. I'll support him the best I can."

Dart and the girls in the room noticed Houki's change of tone when she spoke to Chifuyu, as if she already has this mission in the bag.

"Hey, doesn't she sound different?" Ling asked.

"That girl's getting overconfident," Dart said with his arms folded. "I knew swapping me for her was a bad mistake."

"Is this really okay?" Charlotte asked.

"Put me on a private channel with Orimura," Chifuyu told Miss Yamada. She connected Chifuyu to a private channel with Ichika, [Ichika.]

"Y-Yes!"

[This is a private channel. Shinonono can't heat us. Shinonono is acting different than usual. That attitude might cause her to make bad decisions. When that time comes, be sure to support her.]

"I understand. I'll make good note of that."

[I hope so.]

"Switching to the open channel. Please standby," Miss Yamada said changing the channel to private back to open.

[Very well. Mission start!]

"Let's go, Ichika!"

"Yeah!" Ichika climbed on the back of the Akatsubaki as the boosters heated up. After five seconds, the Akatsubaki launched into the air and towards the Gosper, where they encountered it five minutes after peaceful flight.

They had the rogue IS in their sights.

"I can see it!" Houki informed.

Ichika stood up on his two feet while he surfed on the Akatsubaki and equipped his sword, preparing his Reiryaku Byakuya and deplete the IS's shield with one strike.

"Whoooaaaaaaa!"

The Gospel turned around with quick reflexes and shot off into the air. Houki and Ichika pursued it into the air.

"Houki! Looks like this'll be tough!" Ichika said. While it rose in the air, the Gospel turned around and opened its wings, commencing a spray of beam bullets from them as the two incoming foes. To evade, Ichika had to jump off the Akatsubaki that was bombarded with the bullets.

"Ugh!" Houki was denoted with explosive blast after explosive blast.

"Houki! Are you okay?" Ichika yelled with concern as the bombardment was stopped.

"I'm fine, however!"

"Yeah, those exploding energy bullets…and that it can fire them at such a rapid momentum isn't helping."

"I'll stop its movements. Ichika, use that time to attack it."

"…Alright."

"Let's go!" Houki equipped her two samurai swords and charged towards the Gospel to distract it. The Gospel returned its bombardment on Houki. She managed to stick her swords into the IS's shield and cling onto it. "Now! Ichika!"

"Yeah!" Ichika began to charge at the immobile IS, however something came up. On the ocean he spotted a boat. He tried to fly down towards it but the Gospel shot numerous energy bullets at him.

Using his Yukihara Type 2, he managed to sling and slice the energy bullets, rendering them useless as they were cut.

Houki turned her eyes of the Gospel and looked in confusion at Ichika, "Ichika?"

With her eyes away from the Gospel, the Gospel broke free and rained down energy bullets at Ichika and Houki who moved to rendezvous with him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Houki yelled.

"There's a boat there, even though the instructors set up a blockade…"

"A boat?!"

The image of the boat came onto Houki's HUD. The image zoomed in into it and gave her a clear image.

"Looks like an illegal fishing boat." Ichika deduced.

"Illegal fishing…?" At this time?!"

The Gospel changed targets to the fishing boat down below and sprayed bullets at it, however the bullets were stopped when Ichika moved himself in the firing direction, taking the damage instead of them.

"Those guys are criminals! Just let them be!"

"No way! I won't let them die!" Ichika refused with all of his might and courage, resolute to protect those in need even if they're lawbreakers.

As he repelled the energy bullets being fired from the Gospel, his energy shield was draining down to the last few digits. His sword solely began to disperse from the lack of energy.

"You idiot! Saving criminals like that! You should just leave crooks like that to="

"Houki! Don't say…such…sad things. Why would you look down on the weak now that you've gotten strong. It's not like you. That's not like the Houki I know."

"…!" Houki began to shake with realization. She loosened her hands and let her swords slip from her hands and descend into the water. Realizing what person she had become, she covered her eye with her arms, horrified. "I… I am… I am…"

Taking this chance, the Gospel took aim of Houki and fired several energy bullets at her.

Ichika saw the Gospel was back on the offensive and was firing on Houki. "Houki!" He yelled moving himself in front of Houki and blocking the attack with his back. The problem was he was out of shield energy now, so the damage he took was very much real. He was lifeless as he dropped down and down into the ocean.

* * *

 **\- Beach Resort -**

After the mission was a failure Houki and Ichika were returned to the beach resort. Neither of them were okay or uninjured.

Ichika lied in a futon, bandaged around his body unconscious and linked up to life support monitoring his breathing and supplying him with oxygen.

Houki was kneeing beside his futon, emotionally stressed and gritting her teeth with burden on herself.

'Even when I wanted to protect you, because of how clumsy and unskilled you were.' She punched the floor hard, exerting all of her frustration. Because of me, Ichika… It's all my fault. He was so concerned about me…but my worst enemy was myself…blinded by my own power…!' Tears began to emerge from her eyes and drop down her hot cheeks from the upset. "Protect him"? I was just violently thrashing around, giving into the power I now had… I'll never pilot an IS…'

The door opened from the left of her and it was Ling, leaning against the door. "…Oh. Just as I thought. Got a minute? Let's talk."

* * *

 **\- Beach -**

Houki followed Ling to the beach where they got some private time to themselves.

"Sorry for being blunt, but isn't want happened to Ichika your entire fault? And so? Now you're all depressed about it?" She brutally grabbed her shirt with her left hand. "You've got some nerve, woman!" She roared into the face of the girl feeling the blues. "Now you lose the will to fight?! Get your act together and focus!"

"…I'll never…pilot an IS…again…"

What Houki said to her in such an emo manner pissed of Ling, causing her to slap her hard across the face trying to wake her up.

SLAP

"Stop being so pathetic! Aren't you a pilot of a personal unit?! Start acting like one and stop being so absorbed in yourself!" Houki started to rub the left cheek that Ling just attacked, beginning to snap back into reality "Besides…do you really want to be branded as a pathetic coward when the time to fight comes?!

"…Wh…What do you want me to do?! We don't know where the enemy is! If you do, then I'll fight!" Seems she was back to normal.

"Heh…well I guess that settled that then."

"Wha..you…" Houki definitely was back to normal again.

Charlotte, Laura, Dart and Cecilia approached Houki from behind her in a line. "I'm sure you're not letting it go with a loss, yes?" Cecilia asked eagerly.

Laura brought up a small HUD with the map of the surrounding area. By some islands where was a chiming ring, emitting an electronic frequency.

"We've located the Gospel in a suspended state, but about 30kms in the skies offshore. It's currently in stealth mode, but it lacks any camouflage to hide itself visually. What's your plan?"

"I'm all ready to go," Charlotte said.

"Of course!" Ling said enthusiastically next with a grin.

"Let's hunt down a roué IS!" Dart pummeled his fists together.

"Wa…Wait! I'll go with you but isn't this disobeying orders?" Houki asked while she sat on the fence for this choice. Wait for orders, or fight now disobeying their standby order.

Dart shrugged his shoulders uncaringly, "I've disobeyed Miss Orimura's orders once so might as well do it again."

"So? Didn't you say you wanted to fight? Are you going to do nothing because it "disobeys orders"? Ling said.

"I… I will…fight and I'll win! I won't lose this time!"

"There you go."

"That thing's going down for sure!"

* * *

 **\- Beach Resort, Briefing Room –**

On the radar monitoring the rogue IS in the middle of the ocean, six more signals picked up as a group heading towards the IS.

It was the girls and Dart, already launched without clearance.

"These are…IS signals!" Miss Yamada yelled in alarm turning around in her chair to Chifuyu behind her. "Bad news! Those girls and Dart are-!"

"What?!"

* * *

 **\- Ocean –**

In the air resting in a clear ball was the rogue IS, cradling itself in its own protection. However that rest came to an end then a new threat in greater numbers shown itself in front of it.

It uncradled itself, spread its wings out and stopped hiding in its protective shield.

"Let's go!" Laura amped up the group with an encouraging shout. She made the first move and aimed her shoulder cannon at the Gospel and fired a shell.

BOOM

KA-BOOM!

The Gospel used its wings to shield itself from the shell that exploded directly in front of it.

"Just a scratch! Keep up the attacks and don't stop!"

While the Gospel was blanketed with smoke, a bullet from a sniper rifle shot a hole through the smoke behind it and hit its back, pushing the IS forward. The shot was fired by Charlotte. After the hit, the Gospel had to escape the smoke so it flew up out of the cloud where it was fired upon by a narrowly missed shot of Cecilia's beam rifle from below.

The Gospel was conjuring beam balls to shot as projectiles, however before it could the Build Banshee appeared behind it. The Gospel looked around quickly and was punched in the face by the equipped VN.

The Gospel quickly recovered from the punch, spun around faster than the blink of an eye and launched itself into the air, spreading its wings and bombarding the group with energy bullets.

'Chance!' Houki thought charging in without a second thought. She was still filled with anger from her loss and flanked the Gospel from its right, cutting of a majority of its right arm armor. She struck again but the Gospel held what was left of it right arm up and blocked the sword with its gauntlet. With its left arm, it was making a ball in its palm. Houki noticed this, quickly withdrew her sword and sliced the Gospel's left arm and then she proceeded to kick the Gospel in the face, sending it down and beaten into the ocean.

SPLASH

Had they won?

Bubbles where the Gospel fell into the sea began to pop as something powerful rose. Shooting out of the water sending waves in every direction came out the Gospel, hiding in a spherical shield only showing a silhouette of it. With a burst of energy, the shield imploded as four pairs of energy wings emerged from the back.

"Amazing… This IS-" Ling began gritting her teeth.

"It transformed, just like Ichika's Byakushiki…" Dart said with a hint of fear.

"The [Second Shift]," Laura explained.

Above the Gospel's head it created a ball of energy about the size of the Gospel itself. From the front of the ball it created, a hurricane was shot downwards past the others and to Houki, launching her with force.

* * *

 **\- Ichika's Dream –**

Ichika woke up in a place he was not familiar with. He was laying on the bottom of a tree as he came to his senses. All around him was weird. The ground was the surface of water and there were dead trees all around him.

In front of him with her back towards him was a girl in a white dress and white hat. Her hair was flowing with the wind.

Once he stood up and started to walk towards the girl, she turned her head around to him, hiding her eyes under her long blond hair.

"I'm being called… I need to go," she said mystically.

"Being called? By who?" He asked. But like that, she disappeared from his sight and now standing behind him was a girl in an IS suit holding a giant sword in her hand.

"Do you wish for strength?" It asked. "DO you wish for strength? For what?"

Ichika turned around to the new voice. "Hm? I don't know who you are, but that's a simple question. I want the strength to protect the weak, my friends, and my family." He answered with a truthful and noble statement. "Well you know, there's time when you need to, right? I can't do that with just force or violence. If I can have that strength, then I can protect those who need it. Together with my friends, we'll continue to fight along each other.

* * *

 **\- Battle With the Gospel –**

"Houki!" Ling cried fearfully as Houki was pushed away and down into one of the small islands and landed herself in a crater. She struggled to get up thinking that she won't be able to meet Ichika again.

The Gospel prepared to fire on Houki again with her wide-spread energy wing attack, so Dart had to be the idiot and purposefully got in the way and take the damage for her. He raised his arms and stood his ground.

"Dart!" Cecilia yelled in panic.

"That's right you rogue, damage me more and seal your fate!" Dart's intent was to allow the Gospel damage him more and let his NT-D Mode gauge increase faster from 19%.However, his shields were draining faster than the gauge can increase.

The other girls tried to interfere but the Gospel sprayed its energy bullets in every direction aimed at all of its enemies.

[DANGER!] His IS cautioned with red blinking warning prompts. His shields lowered to zero and he was taking real damage now. Luckily his NT-D gauge was filled to 100%.

"Ghh, there we- Ahh!" The Build Banshee couldn't last anymore with its defense, nor could Dart withstand the damage so he was blown back, pushed by miniature explosions.

But out of nowhere the Gospel was kicked away by something fast. When the firing stopped everyone looked to see who had joined them and it was Ichika with a brand new IS form. It was his Byakushiki's second form: the Setsura.

"I hope I'm not too late," he joked.

"Look who's here, about time you showed up you lazy ass!" Dart scolded flying his Build Banshee into the air next to the Byakushiki. The Build Banshee transformed into NT-D Mode while the peace lasted.

"No concern for my health? You're too mean, Dart."

"Shut up and help us deal with the Gospel."

"Alright. We gotta finish this."

The Gospel spread its wings out and fired at everyone again. Dart detached his shields behind him and brought one in front of him and the other in front of Cecilia, both shields repelling the energy bullets.

Ichika flew in front of the girls, "Setsura, Shied Mode change!" The gauntlet on Ichika's left fist changed into a shield and negated the attack like an I-Field. The girls didn't budge a muscle being safely protected by the shields.

"The energy is being negated by both shields…" Charlotte said in awe.

"Is that the Reiraku Byakuya as a shield?" Ling questioned.

"It's become a weapon that can nullify an opponent's energy for both offense and defense," Laura explained. "But if it's the same as the Reiraku Byakuya, then it's consuming his energy at an alarming rate."

Back on the ground Houki stared into the air as she watched Ichika and Dart protect themselves from the bombardment of the Gospel.

 _'_ _I want to protect him… This time, I won't make any more mistakes, for him!'_ Houki thought longingly. To her surprise, the Akatsubaki's energy was recharging. It must be the One-off ability resonating with the will of the pilot. "This is…" The Akatsubaki's energy is recharging to full…" Then a prompt on the screen appeared in her HUD. "Kenran Butou? The Akatsubaki's One-off ability?" She then stood up, recovered by her IS and was able to get back into the fight.

Ichika's energy was down to 20%. He couldn't keep up anymore.

"Ichika!" Houki flew up to him as fast as she could.

"Houki? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. But, here take this!"

She instantly took his spare hand and transferred energy from her IS to his. Ichika felt something…good happen to him. His energy was being refilled. It was because of Kenran Butou, the Akatsubaki's One-off ability to restore shields.

Since Ichika and Houki were holding hands, Dart decided to go and divert the Gospel away from them. He lowered his shield and charged towards the Gospel with one shield following beside him.

The Gospel ceased firing and flew away, being pursued by the Build Banshee at high speeds.

"Let's go," Ichika rallied the girls and also began to chase the Gospel, firing as they chased the Gospel through the air as well.

The Gospel looked behind itself and turned around completely, spreading its wings out and barraging the Build Banshee. However his shields protected him as they encircled around him at the front, creating a shield. With his shields still up, the Build Banshee went through his shield and towards the Gospel where Dart managed to grasp the head of the Gospel with its open VN Claws.

In his grasp, Dart equipped his BS in his right hand and fired a continuous spray of plasma for a few seconds to get the shields down more. After four seconds of the fire, he stopped and threw the Gospel where he formerly was like he was pitching a baseball in a game. The Gospel flew towards the others where it was now in the centre of the others.

Laura shot out her wire and it wrapped around the legs of the Gospel, making sure it wasn't going anywhere.

The Gospel stared towards Laura below her that had her tied up. Then it had to look from Laura to Ichika who was already in its face, with his left hand forward armed with his sword.

"Uuurrrraaaaahhhhh~!" He stabbed his beam sword through the chest of the Gospel and pushed her down to the sea, before pushing her over the sea and towards a beach of an island.

 ** _BOOM_**

The two hit land as Ichika still held his sword in the Gospel draining its shield energy. In defense, the Gospel slowly raised its right hand towards Ichika's neck to strangle. But the shield depleted to zero and deactivated the IS system. It dropped its hand down to the sand and its energy wings dispersed.

It was finally over.

"It's done," Ichika said relieved getting of the Gospel and sat on the sand.

* * *

 **\- Beach Resort, Outside –**

It was a hard battle for the personal IS pilots to take down the Gospel and the group were pleased with themselves for this victory. They were happy, but that was until they all stood at attention outside of the beach resort standing in front of a livid Chifuyu and casual Miss Yamada.

""Mission accomplished", is what I wanted to say, but…" She began with her eyes closed. "You have broken several rules through your unauthorized actions. As such, you'll receive some disciplinary action in form of detention and practical training."

"Yes." The kids in the line all said emotionless, accepting their punishment.

It was a bit light hearted for their actions. Yamada turned her head to Chifuyu with her eyes closed and a smile, "Miss Orimura, that's…"

"That said," Chifuyu added as she opened her eyes with relief. "I'm glad you all came back safely."

Smiles appeared on the teens as they all headed inside with Miss Yamada leading them. "Alright, to the medical center for treatments, everyone!" She noticed Ichika lag behind as is something happened to him. "Orimura, will be catching up with you there."

* * *

 **\- Dining Room –**

"Hey, hey~! What happened anyway? Tell us~!" Honne begged Dart, Cecilia, Ling, Laura and Charlotte to spill the beans on what happened. They were currently enjoying some R&R eating ramen and drinking tea.

"No way! It's top secret!" Charlotte denied with a look of uncare picking up a piece of food with her chopsticks.

"Eh~? What about you?" Kiyoka tried to ask Ling, someone who could tell them unfortunately…

"Even we don't know the whole picture." Ling replied.

"Also, shoud we ever disclose any details, you may also be detained." Laura backed up Ling.

"Ah…I see. Sorry," Kiyoka scratched her cheeks admitting that would happen if they heard something top-secret.

"Eh? Where's Orimura and Shinonono?" Another girl asked looking around the room. Now that they think of it, they were absent from the table, possibly together. Ling, Laura and Charlotte dropped their chopsticks and went running out of the door.

After they were gone, Dart needed to do something he needed to do yesterday that was bothering him for an entire day. He gazed over to his left and leaned over towards an unexpected Cecilia and then he wrapped his left arm around her back and placed it on her left arm.

She jumped from the unnoticed action and suddenly, "Dar-" she was brought closer to Dart.

 _Smooch_

Dart had reeled her face in and locked his lips onto hers, shocking the few girls surrounding them and Cecilia who was starting to enjoy the feeling.

The standing girls blushed planting their hands on their cheeks.

"Ooh~! How perverted of Dart!" Honne sang.

After three more seconds, Dart let go of his kiss and backed away. "Wh-Wh-What was that for?!" Cecilia asked still wobbly from what just happened.

"Keeping a dare," he giggled. "We should do the dare more often now that we're going to be together a lot more from now on, right Ceci?" He gave her a happy smile and nickname, showing his teeth to her.

Cecilia gasped with overwhelming delight and a hot blush on her cheeks. Was it true? Dart wants to be with her?

"Oh darling!" Cecilia launched herself at Dart and wrapped her arms around him, embracing her new boyfriend.

* * *

 **\- Beach –**

Ichika sat alone at the end of a rock bridge leading a bit into the ocean from the island, staring off into the distance. He was sitting there relaxing from what happened today. It was a nice and peaceful moment. He had his dark blue swimming trunks on and was planning of going for a swim.

Walking towards him from behind was Houki, noticing Ichika. "Ichika?" She called his name.

"Houki? Did you come for a swim too?" he asked turning is head around to greet Houki who was in a white swimsuit. She looked beautiful in it.

"Just to cool my head off a bit," she replied. Ichika blushed at the sight and embarrassed Houki, "D-Don't look at me like that…"

"Ah sorry," he turned his head to the front again. "I was thinking that swimsuit looks nice on you."

"Ah…I see." She walked to the end and sat on the edge next to Ichika. "Um, well…is your hair alright? It got burnt a little out there…"

"Ah, its fine. How about you? Are you alright? What about your injures? I'm sure you won't heal that fast from…"

"I don't get it either, but I woke up and when my IS activated, I was fully healed. You can't see any injuries right now, right? So don't worry about it too much about it…"

"I can't!" Houki yelled getting onto her knees and looked at Ichika. "You got hurt badly because of me! One small miss, and it could have been worse!" She scolded as she approached closer to him, but then backed away when her breasts touched his chest. She folded her arms, "That's why…" She grit her teeth. "Don't forgive me…so easily…"

"Houki… I get it here's your punishment," he turned towards her with a serious look.

"Punishment? Bring it on!" She was ready for her punishment, but she was not ready for what her punishment was. He kissed her on the cheeks for a short time.

"…" Houki was thunderstruck.

"I can't punish you on your birthday."

"Ichika…" He finally recognized her not as a childhood friend, but as a woman. The two were about to go for another kiss, but something or a few things didn't want that to happen.

 _Whoosh_

 ** _KA-BOOM_**

Behind Ichika was an explosion in the water, splashing the two.

"How unfortunate that I missed!" Above Houki and Ichika was Ling that fired one blast from her impact cannon, Charlotte and Laura in their respective IS.

"Hmph, and to think my wife would cheat on me," Laura said annoyed.

"Ichika, what might you be doing?" Charlotte asked next with a killing aura around her as she equipped a sniper rifle.

"H-Houki!" Ichika stood up with haste and instantly picked up Houki in a princess style. "Let's run!" With Houki in his arms he ran away from the three girls who were aiming to deal more damage to him than the Gospel did.


End file.
